Church Of St Paul

LANCASTER

SD46SE SCOTFORTH ROAD, Scotforth 1685-1/1/334 (West side) 25/10/85 Church of St Paul (Formerly Listed as: SCOTFORTH ROAD, Scotforth St Paul's Church)

II

Parish church. 1874 and 1891. By Edmund Sharpe, extended westward by 3 bays by Paley and Austin. Brick, faced externally with local gritstone with yellow terracotta detailing. Slate roofs. PLAN: 5-bay aisled nave with western transept; hipped tower over the chancel bay flanked by a north vestry; eastern apsidal sanctuary. EXTERIOR: in late C12 Transitional style, many details, especially those of the terracotta, taken from Sharpe's studies of Yorkshire Cistercian Abbeys. West facade with wheel window over 2 lancets. 2-storey south porch, the entrance arch of 3 receding semicircular arches with 2 round-headed windows above. The nave bays are defined by pilaster buttresses at both aisle and clerestorey levels. 2 round-headed windows to each aisle bay, 2 roundels to each clerestorey bay with a prominent carved corbel table above. The square tower rises awkwardly with 2 small round-headed windows to the north and south sides. The tall bell-chamber stage has thin clasping buttresses with nook-shafts to each corner, and 2 pointed arch openings to each face, filled with 2-light plate tracery. Steep east and west gables to the lead roof, each with a vesica piscis opening. Apse with half-conical roof, divided into 3 bays by buttresses, each bay with a blind arcade of semicircular arches below a large round-headed window, and a continuous corbel-table gutter. INTERIOR: the northern third of the western transept is open internally to the ridge. The nave arcades are of terracotta, the round arches of 2 orders springing from columns with square scalloped capitals. The nave roof trusses are supported on triple terracotta shafts sitting on corbels within the arcade spandrels. The chancel and sanctuary arches are also of 2 orders rising from corbelled triple shaft responds. The chancel bay below the tower has a quadripartite plaster rib-vault and blind arcading to dado level on the north and south walls. The apse has a plaster cul-de-four vault and the windows are set within a continuous wall-arcade. FITTINGS include pews, which stretch from arcade to arcade without a central aisle, and a large pink marble font.

Listing NGR: SD4799660026