Church Of St Ignatius

PRESTON

SD5429NW MEADOW STREET 941-1/10/205 (North side) 27/09/79 Church of St Ignatius

GV II*

Roman Catholic church. 1833-6, by J.J.Scoles of London, chancel and chapels added 1858 by J.A.Hansom; altered 1885-6 by M.E.Hadfield & Sons, and G.Webster. Chisel-dressed sandstone ashlar, slate roofs. Nave on north-south axis with east and west aisles; south tower with spire, flanked by chapel and baptistry (added 1912), east and west transepts, and chancel with east and west chapels. Perpendicular style. The tower, of 3 unequal stages with set-back buttresses, has the main doorway recessed in a 2-centred arch with inner and outer moulding and a crocketed ogee crest, above this a tall 2-centred arched 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and a pedestal-mounted statue on the sill, a set-back belfry stage with louvred 2-light windows, an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles, short flying buttresses from these to an octagonal spire with clock-faces, lucarnes, roll-moulding to the angles, and an apex cross. The flanking baptistry and chapel are square, with parapets, each with a niche statue in the front wall and a large traceried 3-light window in the side. The nave is tall and narrow, the aisles low and broad, both of 5 bays, the aisles with buttresses and wide Tudor-arched 3-light windows and the nave with pilaster strips and large 3-light clerestory windows, all these windows with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds, and both with parapets, those of the nave with tall crocketed pinnacles (some missing). The transepts, slightly lower than the nave, have large 4-light traceried windows, and in the angles with the aisles small added porches. The chancel, 4 bays beyond the transepts, has pilaster strips and 2 traceried clerestory windows in each bay except at the north end which has only one, and various gabled side chapels on both sides in similar style. INTERIOR: 5-bay aisle arcades with clustered piers and moulded 2-centred arches, inner shafts carried up to meet slender wall shafts of roof trusses, which have cusped open-arcading; organ loft in tower, with choir gallery projected into nave; large transept arches in similar style, and confessionals at the end of each (added 1885); 3-bay chancel with arcades also in similar style but with annular caps to the shafts, hoodmoulds to the arches, and angel-corbels to the wall-posts; sanctuary with large transomed window; inner and outer chancel aisles, with chapels at the north ends, various elaborate reredoses etc.

Listing NGR: SD5417429935