St Joseph, Leigh

Introduction

Joseph Hansom designed the church. The church was built in 1855. The church is built of hammer-dressed stone with fishscale bands to the slate roof.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is Gothic Revival with a 9-bay nave, 3-light windows with Geometrical tracery, and a 3-stage tower with saddle roof. The church has a wide nave with polygonal chancel, west tower, south porch, north and south chapels and a sacristy. The church's hammer-beam roof failed structurally early in its life, and slender cast-iron columns were inserted to support the hammer-beam ends. The interior has an unusually wide hammer-beam roof with arch braces in two directions.

The church contains an elaborate altar and reredos incorporating a heavily enriched canopy above a crucifix. The church has timber fittings. The church has stained glass. The church contains various statuary. The church has a brightly painted chancel ceiling.

Parish life

In 2025 a group of elderly parishioners launched a new group for social trips, using the minibus belonging to the charity at St Ambrose-Barlow House. The parish has a children's liturgy at all three Masses of St Edmund Arrowsmith Churches. The parish participates in CAFOD Family Fast Day collections.