St Thomas' Church, Stockport
| St Thomas' Church, Stockport | |
 St Thomas' Church, Stockport, from the northeast
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 St Thomas' Church, Stockport
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| Coordinates: 53°24′13″N 2°09′18″W / 53.4036°N 2.1550°W | |
| OS grid reference | SJ 898 897 |
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| Location | St Thomas's Place, Wellington Road South, Stockport, Greater Manchester |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | St Thomas, Stockport |
| History | |
| Consecrated | 25 September 1825 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I |
| Designated | 14 May 1952 |
| Architect(s) | George Basevi |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Neoclassical |
| Groundbreaking | 1822 |
| Completed | 1825 |
| Construction cost | £15,611 |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Stone |
| Administration | |
| Parish | St Thomas, Stockport |
| Deanery | Stockport |
| Archdeaconry | Macclesfield |
| Diocese | Chester |
| Province | York |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Revd Kenneth Kenrick |
St Thomas' Church, Stockport, is located in St Thomas's Place, Wellington Road South, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Stockport, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the diocese of Chester.[1] The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.[2] It was a Commissioners' church, having received a grant towards its construction from the Church Building Commission.[3] When it was built, Stockport was in the county of Cheshire, and it was the only church in that county to receive money from the first parliamentary grant administered by the Commission. It was designed by the architect George Basevi, and was one of his earlier works.[4] It is his only surviving Commissioners' church.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History
The church was built between 1822 and 1825.[4] The cost of building it was £15,611 (£1,080,000 as of 2012)[5], and a grant of £15,636 was given by the Church Building Commission.[3][A] The contractors were Samuel Buxton and Son, and the land was given by Lady Warren-Bulkeley. The church was consecrated on 25 September 1825 as the daughter church of St Mary, Stockport.[6] At the time it was built it could seat 2,000.[7] The church was refurbished by T.H. Allen in 1881, and the chancel remodelled by Medland Taylor in 1890. The original seating has been replaced, but the galleries have survived.[6]
[edit] Architecture
[edit] Exterior
St Thomas' is a Neoclassical building, constructed in ashlar[2] Runcorn sandstone.[8] The church is rectangular in plan, of six bays,[2] with a clock tower attached at the west end and a massive portico at the east, its pediment supported by six Ionic columns. When the church was begun, the portico provided a frontage onto what was then the main road. A recessed central entrance beneath the portico gives entrance to the galleries, while flanking doors lead to the vestries.[6]
Toward the top of the tower are bell openings with pediments, above which is a stage containing a clock face on each side and ball finials at the corners. The tower is surmounted by an open cupola carried on eight plain columns. The north and south sides of the church have two tiers of windows, the upper ones with round-arched heads, and the lower ones segmental heads.[4]
[edit] Interior
Inside the church are galleries on three sides carried on square columns. Rising from the galleries to the ceiling are fluted Corinthian columns.[4] The chancel, remodelled in 1890[6] is raised, and surrounded on three sides by a balustrade.[4] A semi-circular pulpit extends from the front of the balustrade on the north side; its lower part is in stone, and the upper in ironwork. In the coresponding position on the south side is a brass eagle lectern.[9] The marble reredos behind the high altar is carved with a depiction of the Annunciation. Above this is a copy of part of Raphael's painting Transfiguration of Jesus.[10] In the south aisle is St John's Altar, which was moved from the mission church of St John when it closed in 1941.[11] The east end of the north aisle is used as the Lady Chapel.[12] The baptistry contains an octagonal font, and is floored with a mosaic depicting fishes.[13] The stained glass dates from the late 19th century, and depicts scenes from the life of Jesus.[14] The three-manual organ was made in 1834 by Samuel Renn. The choir division was added in 1890 by Alex Young, and the organ was cleaned and overhauled in 1961 by Jardine.[15]
[edit] Present day
Services are held in the church on Sundays and major Christian festivals, and are usually accompanied by a robed choir.[16] Recent repairs and restorations have including replacing the roof, and repairing the clock faces and upper parts of the tower. It is planned to include more facilities inside the church, including toilets and a kitchen, to enable it to be used as a venue for concerts and recitals.[17]
[edit] See also
- Grade I listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- List of Commissioners' churches in Northeast and Northwest England
[edit] Notes
A In some cases, as in this one, the size of the grant was greater than the actual construction cost because it also included contributions towards the cost of the site, legal fees, etc.
[edit] References
- ^ St Thomas, Stockport, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/stockport-st-thomas1825/, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ a b c d Parish Church of St Thomas, Stockport (1067160). National Heritage List for England. English Heritage. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^ a b Port, M. H. (2006), 600 New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856 (2nd ed.), Reading: Spire Books, p. 326, ISBN 978-1-904965-08-4
- ^ a b c d e Hartwell, Claire; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 595–596, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ a b c d St Thomas' Church St Thomas' Place, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, http://maps.stockport.gov.uk/internet/gisshed/infopage.aspx?idno=82, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ Arrowsmith, Peter (1997), Stockport: a history, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, ISBN 0-905164-99-7
- ^ Davy, Christopher (1839). The Architect, Engineer, and Operative Builder's Constructive Manual (2nd ed.). John Williams. pp. xxiv-v. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=clVkAAAAMAAJ&pg=PR24&dq. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- ^ The pulpit and chancel steps, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/highaltar.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ The high altar, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/pulpit.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ St John's Altar, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/stjohnaltar.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ The Lady Chapel, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/ladychapel.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ The Baptistry, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/baptistry.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ The Stained Glass, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/windows.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ Cheshire (Manchester, Greater), Stockport, St. Thomas (N01993), British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N01993, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ About Us, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/AboutUs.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
- ^ Restoration and fundraising, Parish Church of St. Thomas, Stockport, http://stthomasstockport.com/Restoration.html, retrieved 14 December 2011
