Sacred_Heart_Church,_Blackpool

Sacred Heart Church, Blackpool

Sacred Heart Church, Blackpool

Church in Lancashire, England

Sacred Heart Church is a Roman Catholic church in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, on Talbot Road close to the town centre. It was the first Roman Catholic church built in Blackpool and has been designated a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage.

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History

Sacred Heart Church was founded by the Jesuits as the town's first Roman Catholic church.[1][2] It was built in 1857 to a design by Edward Welby Pugin.[3] The church was enlarged, to the east, in 1894, to a design by Pugin & Pugin.[2] It was designated as a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage on 20 October 1983.[4][3] The Grade II* listing is for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".[5] Since 2004, it has been served by priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. The parish priest is Canon Robert Dewhurst.[6]

Architecture

The church is constructed of stone, with slate roofs, in the English Gothic style.[3] Its plan consists of a four-bay nave with an octagonal crossing, around which the aisles and transepts lie.[2][3] The lead roof over the crossing is pyramidal and has an octagonal wooden lantern with side tracery. The lantern itself has a pyramidal roof of copper.[2][3] The church tower is to the west; it has four stages with angled buttresses and corner pinnacles, and buttressed aisles with clerestories.[2][3] There are three-light windows in the aisles and four-light windows in the nave transepts. Stained glass in the nave windows was designed by Frances Barnett of Leith.[2] The windows of the 1894 extension are larger than elsewhere and have reticulated tracery. The large east window has stained glass, possibly by William Wailes.[2]

The nave arcades are supported by clustered marble piers with foliated tops and moulded lancet arches.[2][3] There is a two-bay gallery to the west.[2] The chancel is flanked by two lady chapels. The church fittings include a white marble octagonal pulpit that is carved and sits on red and black columns.[3]

There is a Neo-Georgian presbytery to the east of the building that was built c. 1950, and a former school to the west that dates from 1898.[2] The church has no graveyard.[7]

Interior

  • Nave
  • Altar

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Farrer, William; Brownbill, J., eds. (1912), "Townships: Layton with Warbreck", A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7, pp. 247–251, retrieved 14 April 2011
  2. [2]
    Hartwell & Pevsner (2009), pp. 137–38
  3. [3]
    Historic England, "Church of the Sacred Heart (1072015)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 29 April 2011
  4. [4]
    Pevsner (1969), p. 69
  5. [5]
    Listed Buildings, English Heritage, 2010, retrieved 22 August 2011
  6. [6]
    "Candlelit Carols in Resort's Hidden Gem", Blackpool Gazette, 20 December 2010, retrieved 14 April 2011
  7. [7]
    "Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, Blackpool — Roman Catholic", GENUKI, retrieved 14 April 2011

Bibliography
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