Blackburn: St Michael & All Angels Worship Centre
Overview
Grid reference: SD 689 290
The church is a simple essay in the Geometrical style and the spire, which is unusually placed to the south of the chancel, is an important feature in the townscape of the area. The nave is symmetrical except for the small porch under a gablet on the south in the second bay from the west.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Five-bay nave with aisles and clerestory, small south porch; chancel with north organ chamber and vestry and south tower and spire.
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by Stevens and Robinson; the foundation stone was laid in 1866 and the church finished in 1868. The south-east steeple was added to designs by F.J. Robinson in 1888. The partnership also designed St. James, Waterfoot, Rawtenstall (1863) and St. Paul, Low Moor, Clitheroe (1867).
Exterior Description
The church is a simple essay in the Geometrical style and the spire, which is unusually placed to the south of the chancel, is an important feature in the townscape of the area. The nave is symmetrical except for the small porch under a gablet on the south in the second bay from the west. Otherwise, the bays of the aisles have alternating two-light and three-light windows, the divisions of the bays being marked by small buttresses. The two-light windows each have a sexfoil in the head and the three-light windows each have three circles in the head, all set in plate tracery. In the shallow clerestory walls above each bay has a group of three circles alternately set in plate tracery or linked by a smaller central circle. The west wall of the nave projects slightly beyond the line of the aisles and has three lencets in the lower part, then two much larger lancets and finally an octofoil within a recessed roundel. The aisles each have a two-light window in the west wall.
The south wall of the chancel is mostly obscured by the tower. This is of three unequal stages with a doorway under a trefoiled hend in the south wall of the ground floor, with a moulded arch set on two orders of nookshafts. The next stage has a two-light window in the south wall which picks up the design of the aisle windows, and the belfry stage is divided from this by a shallow stage which has a quatrefoil in each face suggesting that it was intended for a clock. The angles have set-back buttresses which die into the walls at this point. The belfry has two-light openings in each face framed by receding orders of chemfering and a broach spire with one tier of lucarnes set low down rises straight from the tower walls without a parapet. The east wall of the chancel has a large five-light window with a big cinquefoil and two quatrefoils in the tracery and the north side is flanked by the vestry and organ chamber under a roof slightly lower than the north nave aisle with two lancets in the north wall and one in the east. The angles of the chancel have gabletted buttresses.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
1947
The east window shows Christ in Glory flanked by the four Archangels with appropriate predella panels below each; by Powell of Whitefriars.
Stained Glass
c.1882
North aisle I : The Nativity, The Crucifixion and The Ascension.
Stained Glass
c.1920
North aisle II : The Marys at the Sepulchre
Stained Glass
c.1910
North aisle III: St. John, St. Michael and St. Luke
Stained Glass
1961
North aisle west : The Good Samaritan, by Shrigley and Hunt
Stained Glass
c.1897
South aisle I : Faith, Hope and Charity, by S. Evans and Son, Liverpool.
Interior
Interior Description
The interior has plastered wells with the stoneworkleft exposed round the windows, arches and doorways. The pillars of the nave arcades are of several forms - octagonal, quatrefoil in plan and cylindrical - but do not run in pairs, and the arches are moulded. The shallower west bay of the nave, which formerly housed a gallery is separate from the others by a pier with attached half-pillars. Some capitals are moulded and others have nailhead decoration. The nave roof is carried on corbels at a stringcourse below the clerestory windows and the principal rafters have high collars and arch braces. The intermediate rafters are similarly treated although the braces stop at the wallhead. The aisle roofs have arch braces with a pierced quatrefoil in the spendrel of each. The floor is paved with stone in the alleys and there are wooden platforms under the pews. The chancel is two steps higher than the nave and has a tiled floor and panelled roof. On the north an arch opens into the organ chamber and on the south an arch communicates with the ground floor of the tower. This space also opens into the east end of the aisle, as does the organ chamber on the north side. The chancel arch has an outer chamfered order running unbroken to the floor but an inner moulded order is carried on attached colonettes above foliate corbels.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
c.1930
The alter is of oak with a panelled front in the Perpendicular style.
Reredos
c.1935
The reredos is also of oak in a Perpendicular style with a carving in relief after Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper; the whole sanctuary is panelled with oak in the same style.
Pulpit
c.1870
The pulpit is of stone, octagonal in plan with small marble colonettes.
Lectern
The lectern is a brass eagle.
Font (object)
c.1880
The font is of stone, octagonal with a cluster of four marble colonettes below; each face of the bowl has a recessed panel carved with the usual symbols.
Font (component)
1891
The cover is of oak with a brass handle.
Organ (object)
1875
The organ was built by Henry Willis in 1875 and rebuilt by the same firm in 1952; it has two manuals and electric-pneumatic action.
Churchyard
Grid reference: SD 689 290
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Quinquennial Inspections
Submit a change
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