Description

BOLTON

SD71SW ESKRICK STREET
797-1/2/85 (East side)
26/04/74 Church of St Thomas the Apostle

II*

Parish church. 1875. Paley and Austin, architects. Brick with
minimal stone dressings, and green slate roof.
PLAN: nave with clerestory and 2 aisles, storey vestry and
bellcote forming south transept, chancel.
EXTERIOR: symmetrical west front with stepped wide lancet
windows flanked by 2 rose windows, and with 2 lower lancet
windows below, each side of central buttress. Lean-to aisles
of 8 bays, with coped gabled north and south porches. Plain
stone bands and hoodmoulds to wide foiled lancet windows.
14-light clerestory, arcaded by continuous hoodmould.
South transept houses vestries, with 2 lancet windows and
narrow doorway, and rose window above. Louvred bellcote is
dormer with pyramidal roof.
2 storey vestry in east angle with chancel. Stepped lancets
with flanking rose windows at east end, set in full-height
stone arch, with blind brick arcading below.
INTERIOR: nave arcade of 5 bays with cylindrical shafts with
stiff leaf capitals carrying stepped pointed brick arches with
stone hoodmoulds. Stone string course and continuous hoodmould
articulate the moulded pointed brick arches of the clerestory,
which has moulded cornice above. Ribbed boarded wagon roof
with chamfered tie beams and kingposts.
Lean-to aisles have curved principals sprung from wall posts.
Clustered shafts to chancel arch with additional responds
carried on corbels. Stiff leaf capitals and stepped brick
arch.
Rectangular stone pulpit at chancel arch, corbelled out from
the base, with polished marble corner shafts, and simple
acanthus frieze.
Plain brick surfaces throughout, relieved by bands of
herringbone work, and with wood panelling to lower walls of
sanctuary, and recessed brick panels with gilded emblems etc.
at east end. Encaustic tiles to sanctuary. Stepped brick
arches to organ chamber and lady chapel to north and south of
chancel, the south arch lower, and with 2 rose windows above
it.
Open-work timber screen separates the lady chapel from the
chancel. Brick segmentally arched piscina and sedilia. Reredos
added in 1893, by John Carlisle of Kirby Lonsdale: wood,
renaissance style, with linen-fold lower panels, arcaded

panelling above with stylised flower motifs in relief, and
figures of the apostles beneath shell canopies forming an
upper row of panelling. Central panel is a low relief of the
Last Supper flanked by saints. Openwork cornice.
FITTINGS: choir furniture apparently all c1911; altar c1960
replacing an earlier one damaged by fire. The lady chapel was
fitted as a war memorial and opened in 1922: reredos and wall
panelling incorporating a memorial. Font at west end of nave;
c1950, a simple cylindrical basin with low-relief
scallop-moulding below the rim.
STAINED GLASS: as originally designed, the church had plain
windows with simple stained margin lights; many of these
remain, though several stained glass windows were added,
including the east window of 1907, possibly by Holland; a
series in north and south aisles and lady chapel by Shrigley
and Hunt, c1920, and the west windows which form a pair, one
of which is dated 1919.
(Kirkman H: Church of Saint Thomas, Halliwell: Parish History:
Bolton: 1950-).

Listing NGR: SD7080010758

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 August 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Thomas' Church, Halliwell at Wikipedia
• St Thomas' Church, Halliwell official website
• Wikidata Q7595529

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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