Church Of St Ignatius

The Church of St Ignatius is a Roman Catholic church located in Preston, built between 1833 and 1836 by J.J.Scoles of London. A chancel and chapels were added in 1858 by J.A.Hansom, with alterations made in 1885-6 by M.E.Hadfield & Sons, and G.Webster. The church is constructed from chisel-dressed sandstone ashlar with slate roofs.

The architectural style is Perpendicular. The building is arranged around a north-south axis, featuring a nave, east and west aisles, a south tower with a spire, flanked by a chapel and baptistry (added in 1912), east and west transepts, and a chancel with east and west chapels. The tower has three unequal stages with set-back buttresses, a recessed 2-centred arched doorway with inner and outer mouldings and a crocketed ogee crest, a tall 2-centred arched 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and a pedestal-mounted statue, a belfry stage with louvred 2-light windows, an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles, flying buttresses to an octagonal spire with clock-faces, lucarnes, roll-moulding to the angles, and an apex cross. The baptistry and chapel are square, each with a niche statue in the front wall and a large traceried 3-light window. The nave is tall and narrow, with low, broad aisles. The nave features pilaster strips and clerestory windows, while the aisles have buttresses and wide Tudor-arched 3-light windows, all with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds, and parapets, the nave’s parapet having tall crocketed pinnacles (some missing). The transepts, slightly lower than the nave, have large 4-light traceried windows. The chancel has pilaster strips and clerestory windows, with gabled side chapels on both sides in a similar style.

Inside, the church showcases 5-bay aisle arcades with clustered piers and moulded 2-centred arches. Inner shafts rise to meet slender wall shafts of roof trusses, which incorporate cusped open-arcading. The tower contains an organ loft and a choir gallery projecting into the nave. Large transept arches are present, alongside confessionals added in 1885. The 3-bay chancel features arcades with annular caps to the shafts, hoodmoulds to the arches, and angel-corbels to the wall-posts. A large transomed window highlights the sanctuary, alongside inner and outer chancel aisles, with chapels at the north ends, and various elaborate reredoses.