St Peter Cathedral

Introduction

St Peter Cathedral in Lancaster was consecrated on 4th October 1859, dedicated to God as a new Catholic parish church for Lancaster. The church is a Grade II* listed building, first listed on 10-Nov-1994. The church was built in 1857-59 and 1895-96 by Edward Paley, with a later baptistry by Paley and Austin. The church is the finest and dominant feature of an important group, also containing a graveyard, school, convent and presbytery, which was built between 1847 and 1859.

History

The original organ was built by J.C. Bishop of London in 1841 for the Catholic Chapel in Dalton Square, Lancaster, and was dismantled and rebuilt in the new church in 1859. The original peal of eight bells was installed in 1879. The original organ was brought from Dalton Square, but in 1888 Richard Leeming donated the present organ, built by Henry Ainscough of Preston. The sacristy was added in 1887, and the baptistery, designed by Paley and Austin, was consecrated in August of 1901.

The bellows were originally blown by an hydraulic engine, which was replaced in 1905 by an electric motor. The Diocese of Lancaster was founded in 1924 to oversee the Catholic population of Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland (now Cumbria).

The painted Stations of the Cross were replaced in 1959 with the present carved Stations of the Cross. The stone screen around the Sacred Heart Chapel and the pulpit were removed in the first reordering in the 1970s. In 1975 the organ was overhauled by Pendlebury of Cleveleys and a new console added.

Extensive restoration work was carried out in 2007 by Henry Willis and Sons (Liverpool). The great carved and painted triptych was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who also oversaw the decoration of the chapel of St Charles Borromeo. The present organ was given by Richard Leeming of Geaves House, Lancaster, and was blessed and opened on 6th January 1889.

Architecture and furnishings

The stained glass was largely executed by Hardman's of Birmingham and Shrigley & Hunt of Lancaster; the glazing in the apse and the side chapels was in place by 1859. The glass in the apse windows and in the west window is original and by Hardman, showing the Ascension and St Peter and St Paul in the east and Christ in Glory at the west.

The Te Deum window (over the west door) and the rose window (in the south transept) were donated in 1888, and the St Peter windows (north aisle) were added in 1894-5. The spire rises to a height of 73m, with 3 tiers of lucarnes on the cardinal faces. The baptistry, approached through fine wrought-iron gates flanked by niches under nodding ogee heads containing statues, has an octagonal stone vault. The floor and font are of polychrome marble, the font bowl being supported on 4 short columns.

The oak font cover is a spirelet suspended from a chain. In the south transept is a triptych, by Giles Gilbert Scott, in which the carved and painted panels represent scenes from the Passion. At the west end of the north aisle is a large seated bronze figure of St Peter. The west gallery contains an organ.

The choir stalls were refurbished with the back rank receiving a new high back, and the marble floor of the chancel was renewed. An altar wall with decorative metalwork was placed behind the original low stone wall which marked out the sanctuary.

The church is built of sandstone ashlar in the Gothic Revival style, with slate roofs and a copper roof over the baptistry. The plan comprises a tall aisled five-bay nave with transepts, an aisled two-bay chancel with a semi-octagonal apse and side chapels, a tower and spire at the north-west corner, and an octagonal baptistry attached to the north transept. The west facade features a five-light window with Geometric tracery and a deeply recessed doorway with two shafts with foliated capitals and orders of crockets and fleurons in the arch.

The south transept contains a round window composed of a ten-light wheel window surrounded by ten circles. The tower has four stages, with a stair turret in the north-west corner, and the lowest stage has a canopied niche containing a statue of St Peter. The interior has a five-bay nave with two-centred arches of two orders of quarter-round mouldings carried on slender round columns with foliated capitals and high octagonal plinths. The chancel has a wooden vault painted with arabesques and angels, with tierceron ribs and foliated bosses, except for the one over the original position of the high altar which shows Christ in Majesty.

The Lady Chapel has a wooden panelled ceiling painted with fleurs-de-lys and crowns. Around the base of the apse are two rows of five gabled canopies containing paintings of other saints, with angel musicians above. The carved oak choir stalls have crocketed canopies. The organ case is divided over the two sides of the West Window, with the Choir and Great divisions to the north and the Swell to the south, and the Pedal organ divided between the two sides.

Parish life

The parish has an active Conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), an international lay Christian voluntary organisation working with the needy, disadvantaged and marginalised in over 140 countries worldwide.