St Paul'S Church

St Paul's Church dates from 1826-28 and was designed by Sir Charles Barry. It is constructed of grey brick with stone dressings, and has slate roofs. The church is in the Perpendicular style and includes an east tower, flanked by vestries, a nave, and aisles.

The tower is in three stages, featuring an arched entrance on the east side with elaborate moulding and chamfering, leading to a vaulted tower hall and a three-light window above. A clock is located in the second stage, with a bell-chamber in the third, and the tower is finished with an embattled parapet. Angle buttresses with offsets terminate in pinnacles. The nave and aisles have five bays with two-light windows between set-back buttresses; the nave extends slightly west of the aisles, both having parapets. The gabled west end has an arched door below a tall three-light window with reticulated tracery, the upper lights having ogee heads. Angle buttresses here also terminate in pinnacles, with a parapeted gable. Single-storey vestries flank the tower at the east end, having canted ends with lights in all three facets, which were obscured by boards during inspection.

Inside, the tower is open in its middle stage. Below this, a seven-bay blind arcade with crocketed gables and a balustrade forms a reredos. The open stage has a vaulted roof framed by a four-centred arch, with a higher four-centred arch with triple wave-moulding framing a shallow chancel. Encaustic tiling is present on the chancel floor and extends into the nave. The five-bay arcade to the nave has compound piers, an inner order, and pointed arches. Galleries are located in the north and south aisles, with panelled fronts, and extend over the west end on two pairs of cast-iron columns. Three four-centred arches lead to the west end entrance porch. The nave has a panelled roof of shallow pitch supported on arched braces, with similar roofs to the aisles. Some plasterwork and decoration in the church and the roof of the north aisle had been removed for refurbishment at the time of the inspection.