St. John, Wigan

Introduction

Saint John's Church in Wigan, within the Archdiocese of Liverpool, is dated 1819 on the frieze of its colonnaded porch.

History

Work started on a church about this time, but it was burned down by a mob in the Protestant Revolution of 1688. Father Charles Brockholes SJ, who entered the Society of Jesus in 1704 and was sent to Wigan in 1740, was the first person recorded as connected to the mission of St John's. The foundation stone of the current church was laid on 27 January 1818. The church was opened on 24 June 1819.

The new church cost £9,000 and could accommodate a congregation of 1,000 people. The architect is not known for certain, but Bryan Little suggests Robert Haulbrook, a local mason whose bill accounted for almost half the cost. J.J. Scoles carried out the earliest decoration of the church in 1834. In 1959 the wooden high altar was replaced by the present marble one, and a marble Lady altar introduced.

The church was consecrated on 17 June 1959. A reordering took place in 1994.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a 2-storey 5-bay symmetrical west front with a full-width Ionic colonnaded porch. The interior has Corinthian pilasters with entablature, a prominent mutuled cornice, an internal apse with giant Corinthian semi-columns, and a west gallery on Corinthian columns. The frieze of the porch is inscribed "ERECTED ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXIX". The centre first-floor window is filled with C20 mosaic.

The church has a louvred cupola with domed roof over the 4th bay of the south side. The church is rectangular, set back from and at right angles to the street.