All Souls Bolton Conservation Statement - The Churches ...

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Bolton. It included the rebuilding of the parish church of St. Peter at Bolton, tothe designs of E.J.Paley. The cost of this (£40,000) was met by PeterOrmerod, a local cotton spinning magnate, and the new church wasconsecrated in 1871.St Peter’s was built before Paley entered into partnership with Hubert Austin.As Paley and Austin the architects were to design both All Souls church and itscompanion church of The Saviour, Deane Road (1882), both examples ofGreenhalgh munificence. The church of the Saviour was demolished in 1975.The new parish of All Souls was created in 1879 from part of that of StJames’s, Waterloo Street. A detail of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of1893, showing the church in its original context of terraced housing and mills,but with fields not far beyond, is attached at Appendix i. The parish continuedto grow well into the twentieth century. In 1935 a local newspaper reported:Whereas in 1875 there were but 875 houses and 4,522 persons in the parish[…], today there are some 8000 persons resident in this parish. Of these, it hasbeen ascertained that 2,401 claim allegiance to All Souls, 908 to other Churchof England parishes, 682 are Roman Catholics, and there are no Jews. 1However, the second half of the twentieth century witnessed the decline ofcotton manufacturing in Bolton, and demographic shifts brought about bylarge-scale immigration from the Indian sub-continent. In 1962 the parishwas re-united with that of St James’s, Waterloo Street when the latter churchwas closed. By 1986 it was estimated that 80% of the local population wasAsian and Muslim, and the numbers attending worship at All Souls haddeclined significantly. The diminishing congregation found it increasinglydifficult to worship in a large building designed to accommodate 800 millworkers, and to meet the growing repair and maintenance bills. It wastherefore decided that the church should close for regular worship. A reportprepared at the time by the Council for the Care of Churches (CCC) concluded:…in view of the sad loss about ten years ago of the companion to All Souls’, thechurch of The Saviour, it is vital that All Souls should be preserved […] Somealternative, use, for example for community purposes, might well suggest itselfin view of the great span of the interior without intervening arcades and pillars.Should an appropriate use not be forthcoming, the Council considers thechurch to be such an important example of the great town churches by Paleyand Austin that it ought to be preserved by the Redundant Churches Fund 2 .In the event no community use was forthcoming, and the building was vestedin the care of the Redundant Churches Fund (now the Churches ConservationTrust) in 1987. Since that time the church has been maintained by the CCTwith the help of local volunteers, and is opened to the public on an occasionalbasis. However it is underused, and prone to vandalism.1 Bolton Evening News 22 January 19352 CCC Report by Donald Findlay, 10 January 1986All Souls, Bolton: Statement of Significance 4
2.2. The building of All Souls churchThe church of All Souls was built at the behest and expense of the brothersNathaniel and Thomas Greenhalgh of Thornydikes, Sharples, who were cottonmill owners in nearby Halliwell. They were men of evangelical conviction,concerned to ensure that the moral and spiritual needs of the cotton workerswere not overlooked. They would no doubt have concurred with the view of TheQuarterly Review, which as early as 1818 had written:The edifices which we have erected are manufacturies and prisons; the formerproducing tenants for the latter. The only way of making them good subjects isby making them good Christians. 3Nathaniel died in 1877, leaving his fortune to Thomas, who used it to establishAll Souls church, built to the designs of Paley and Austin, architects ofLancaster. The dedication was stipulated by the donor. The school was builtfirst, in 1877, to the designs of the local architect J.J. Bradshaw, and not byPaley and Austin, as stated in the list description. Paley and Austin wereappointed in the summer of 1878 and started preparing drawings immediately.Some of these are attached at Appendices iii-xiii. A contract was let withCordingley and Stopford of Manchester, and work started on site in the Autumnof that year. There was no great ceremony, or laying of a foundation stone. Thecompleted church was consecrated by Dr Fraser, Bishop of Manchester, on 30June 1881. The contract price was £16,500 excluding fittings, and the overallprice for the church and school complex was just under £27,000. The firstincumbent was William Popplewell, who was to stay at All Souls until 1923.2.3. The architectsEdward Graham Paley (1823-95) was the son of a Yorkshire clergyman andgrandson of William Paley, Archdeacon of Carlisle and author of Evidences ofChristianity. He was articled to, and in 1845 became a partner in the successfulLancaster office of the church architect Edmund Sharpe (b.1809). HubertJames Austin (1841-1915) was also the son of a clergyman, and began hisarchitectural career with his elder half-brother Tom, who had been a pupil ofSharpe and Paley in the 1850s, before moving to the offices of George GilbertScott in 1864. In 1868 he returned to Lancaster, joining Paley as a partner, andthe firm of Paley and Austin was born. This was to become the finest and mostprolific ecclesiastical practice in the north of England. Through its variousincarnations, the practice was to span the whole Victorian period and thetwentieth century up to the Second World War. Edward Paley’s son HenryAnderson Paley (1859-1946) entered the offices in 1877, about the time of theAll Souls commission. He went to work in the London offices of ThomasCollcutt before returning to Lancaster in 1882 and becoming a partner in 1886,when the firm became Paley, Austin and Paley. With the death of Edward Paleyin 1895 the firm became Austin and Paley but when in 1914 it was joined byGeoffrey, Austin’s son it became Austin, Paley and Austin. By 1925 the namehad reverted to Austin and Paley. The practice was wound up following3 Pevsner, N. op citAll Souls, Bolton: Statement of Significance 5
Page 1 and 2: Statement of SignificanceChurch of
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTSPageSUMMARY 21. INTRODUCTIO
Page 5: 2 UNDERSTANDING2.1. Historical back
Page 9 and 10: (altar, communion rails, choir stal
Page 11 and 12: They must have looked to Bodley, bu
Page 13 and 14: BIBLIOGRAPHYUnpublished worksCounci
Page 15 and 16: Appendix i: 1 st edition Ordnance S
Page 17 and 18: Choir stalls and other furniture po
Page 19 and 20: Appendix ivGround plan, with furnis
Page 21 and 22: Appendix viElevation of bay of nave
Page 23 and 24: Appendix viiiRoof details (drawing
Page 25 and 26: Appendix xDetail of undated (probab
Page 27 and 28: Appendix xiiInner doors from porch
Page 29 and 30: Appendix xiv: Photographs4. General
Page 31 and 32: 5. West doors, showing greater elab
Page 33 and 34: 9. Sanctuary. The present dressing
Page 35 and 36: 13. Reading desk14. OrganAll Souls,
Page 37 and 38: 17. Pine pews of nave, complete wit
Page 39 and 40: 21. Font (cover 1923)22. VandalismA

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