St. Hubert, Dunsop Bridge

Introduction

Saint Hubert's Church in Dunsop Bridge, within the Diocese of Salford, is a Roman Catholic church designed by E W Pugin and J Murray in the Early English Gothic Revival style, built in 1865. The church was opened on 2 May 1865 by Bishop Richard Roskell of Nottingham.

History

From the early nineteenth century until the construction of this church in 1865, Mass was said in the family chapel of Colonel Charles Townley at Thorneyholme Hall. In its early years the church doubled during the week as a school, until a separate school was constructed nearby. In 1974 the parish became part of Lancashire and in 1988 the church was transferred to the Diocese of Salford.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is oriented NW to SE but conventional liturgical orientations are used; the nave is aisleless with a NW porch and a sacristy to the S side. The apsidal sanctuary has lancets alternating with stepped buttresses and a semi-dome roof surmounted by an iron finial. The apsidal E end is vaulted and has marble-clad lower walls with slender marble engaged columns carrying the ribs of the apse. The sanctuary is richly decorated with painted and stencil decoration, including a depiction of the horse Kettledrum, upon whose Derby winnings the church is said to have been built.

The sanctuary floor has encaustic tiles with fleur de lys and other motifs, and the original altar is retained. The original altar has marble columns with floriated caps and a polished granite frontal with a central panel of the Virgin Mary flanked by kneeling figures of St Hubert and a bishop. The E window by J B Capronnier of Brussels (1865) comprises three lancets with the Virgin and Child in the centre, St Anne to the left and St Veronica to the right. The three-light W window also by Capronnier, has St Hubert and stag in the central light, and Saints Peter and Paul to the left and right.

A stone stoup adjacent to the W door is thought to be medieval in origin and was brought from a church at Burholme. The arch-braced roof of the nave also has painted and stencilled decoration. The church has a pitched roof with a large stone cross finial. The W end has triple lancets above a continuous sill band and a single bellcote at the apex.

The roofs are of alternating grey and green slate, but have lost the original decorative ridge tiles. The nave has plastered and plainly painted walls with a boarded dado and retains its original benches with shaped and chamfered ends. A segmental-headed doorway leads to the full-height sacristy with original fittings. The walls to either side of the sanctuary are richly coloured and contain trefoil-headed recesses, housing statues of the Virgin Mary and St Joseph.

The stained glass of the apse and the east and west windows is by Jean-Baptiste Capronnier of Brussels. The wrought-iron forward altar, lectern, candle stand and sanctuary lamp were made in 1993.

The east and west windows were made by J.B.Capronnier of Brussels in 1865. At the base of the high altar is a carving of Our Lady with, on one side Saint Hubert and a stag, and on the other the figure of a bishop (possibly also Saint Hubert). The apse is richly decorated; of particular interest is the painting of the racehorse Kettledrum, on the left and below the coat of arms of the Towneley family. Outside the church and overlooking the cemetery is the figure of an angel, which stands over the Towneley family vault.

The church is built of local sandstone with green and grey slate roofs. The church has a three-bay nave with buttresses to its E corners. The NW porch has a half-hipped roof and a full-height pointed-arched entrance with hood mould. The sacristy to the S has a half-hipped roof and a buttressed S end with a plain window to either side.

The church has a segmental-arched doorway to the NW porch. The church has a tall chamfered plinth to all elevations. The church has a boundary wall to the NE. The church is situated outside the small village of Dunsop Bridge in a rural location and is set within a graveyard.

The church has a marble memorial plaque to the Towneley family beginning with Peregrine Towneley who bought the estate in the early nineteenth century. In the southwest corner of the church is a memorial window to Richard Henry Towneley. On the side pillars of the altar are four small carvings of a horse's head. Below the coat of arms of the Eastwood family, on the right hand side of the apse, is a picture of a deer.

The altar stone was hewn at Waddington Fell. In the centre of the altar, lectern and candle stand is the head of Saint Hubert's stag with the cross between its antlers.