St. John the Evangelist

Introduction

Saint John the Evangelist Church in Kirkham, in the Diocese of Lancaster, was consecrated on 22 April 1845 by Bishop Brown of Liverpool and formally opened the following day. The church is distinguished by a spire 110 feet high and a peal of bells said to be the first to ring out in a Catholic church since the Reformation.

History

The church was built by George Myers, Pugin's personal builder, in 1845. The floor of the nave was lowered around 1900.

In 1995 The Willows celebrated the 150th anniversary of the present church building. In November 2011, The Willows became linked with the Parish of St Joseph’s, the Parish Priest of The Willows serving both parishes.

In 2009 The Willows celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Mission at The Willows. On 21 July 2013, the parishes of The Willows and St Joseph’s merged to form a single parish, The Holy Cross. The parish is committed to good ecumenical relations with all church communities in Kirkham, Wesham and the surrounding district.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of dressed sandstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with coped gables surmounted by crosses. The church has a nave with clerestory and aisles, chancel with aisles but unaisled sanctuary, single storey south porch, west tower and spire, and vestry block to north east. The chancel has a wagon roof and is open to side chapels through double chamfered arches, with a triple sedilia with cusped arches under a square hoodmould. The Crucifixion hanging above the chancel arch and the former rood screen, relocated to the west end, were designed by Pugin.

The east window in the sanctuary has a hoodmould and three lights with pointed trefoil heads surmounted by a pyramid of three pointed trefoils. The tower has a splayed stair turret at the SE corner and a 2-light belfry-window with reticulated tracery set beneath a continuous hoodmould which runs around the tower. The baptistry window has 3 lights with trefoiled subarches under a pointed trefoil. The open roof has tall wall posts braced to tie beams which carry crown posts braced to collars and collar purlins. The chancel arch is segmental pointed with continuous chamfer.