St Mary, Wigan

Introduction

St Mary, Wigan, in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, is a sandstone ashlar church in Gothick style with Perpendicular features to the facade. The parish has a sick list and a list of the dead.

The parish has a magazine that ran from 1981 to 2003. The parish has a First Holy Communion and Confession preparation programme for Year 4 children.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a rectangular plan with an integral narthex, a nave with north and south aisles, and a short chancel. The interior has 5-bay aisle arcades of slender clustered wooden columns and moulded 2-centred arches. Galleries to three sides of the interior have Gothick traceried front panelling. A glazed screen with Gothick tracery and leaded glazing stands below the west gallery.

Curved stone staircases to the gallery are located in both front corners of the interior. The facade has a large 2-centred arched 5-light transomed window with dense geometric Perpendicular tracery in the head. The Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building, first listed on 24-Oct-1951. The church was built in 1818 and later altered.

The exterior has a 2-storey 5-bay symmetrical facade with a gabled centre and lower outer bays, featuring pilaster-buttresses with crocketed pinnacles and an embattled parapet with a bellcote. The flanking bays each have a Tudor-arched doorway with double-chamfered surround and a 2-centred arched 2-light window above. The 5-bay side walls have tall 2-centred arched 3-light transomed windows with flush transoms and mullions. The interior has closed trusses to a shallow-pitched ceiling with moulded ribs and large foliated bosses.