Sacred Heart, Chorley

Introduction

E. Kirby designed Sacred Heart Church in Chorley, which was built in 1894. The church is constructed of yellow rock-faced stone with red sandstone dressings and a slate roof.

Architecture and furnishings

Its high nave with aisles and a polygonal apse follow the Geometrical style. The church presents a tall gable front to Brooke Street, with angle buttresses ending in short pinnacles and a giant splayed and moulded arch of red sandstone with four orders. Within the arch is a gableted splayed portal with a moulded arch, containing coupled trefoil-headed doorways and a spherical triangle in the head with three trefoils. Above the portal, the wall is panelled with decorative coursing, and the head of the arch is filled by a rose window with a cusped centre containing a cross, surrounded by eight quatrefoils.

The first bay has large gabled porches with a deep arch and a spherical triangle with flowing tracery over it. The clerestory has arched windows with two trefoil lights and a cinquefoil in the head, with a hoodmould, between pilaster strips.