Church Of St Joseph

The Church of St Joseph is a Roman Catholic church built between 1873 and 1874 by architect J. O'Byrne. It is constructed of red brick with sandstone dressings and features a slate roof. The church consists of a nave, aisles, sanctuary, and side chapels all under one roof, except for the transeptal gables of the chapels. There is a west porch and an attached vestry on the north side.

The prominent gabled west front is divided into three sections and includes buttresses. The porch, flanked by these buttresses, has a gabled center with a deep, two-centred arched brick doorway that is moulded in four orders and features coupled doors. The gable above the porch has a lancet design that extends as a parapet on the sides, which also have similar lancets. Above the porch, there is a stepped arrangement of three very tall two-centre-arched two-light windows with multifoil tracery, set within a round-headed blank arch, and each side has a similar window with a hoodmould. The side walls have six bays, are buttressed, and contain tall triple lancet windows in each bay, with a multifoil window in the gable at the east end. The sanctuary features five stepped lancets.

Inside, the church has aisle arcades supported by columns of polished pink granite, with stiff-leaf capitals and two-centred double-chamfered arches that have linked hoodmoulds. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted. There is a west choir gallery with a wooden arcaded front and a projected semi-octagonal conductor's stand. The interior also includes a large elaborately carved Gothic reredos with marble shafts, a central crocketed canopy topped with a spire, and side arcades that house life-size statues under crocketed gablets. Additionally, there is a marble octagonal pulpit with statues in arched niches and a curved staircase. The stained glass windows were created by Mayer of Munich and Casolini of St Helens. The church is located in the center of a large cotton-mill district and is dedicated to St Joseph, the worker.