Church of St Thomas: Rochdale Road Pimhole Bury

West tower, nave and aisles, chancel. Grouped lancets with colonnettes. Consecrated on 10 December 1866, the one hundredth such consecration by Manchester’s first bishop, Prince Lee. [Pevsner: South Lancashire. Page 97]

Mr Openshaw, of Primrose Hill, Pimhole, lately expressed his intention of building a church here solely at his own cost. The edifice is to meet the requirements of the people. The site, which is the gift of the Earl of Derby, contains over 8,000 square yards, and is bounded on the northerly side by Rochdale-road and on the westerly side by Pimhole-lane. The church will be erected on the north-westerly side, land being reserved on the east for a parsonage-house, and on the south for schools etc. The architect is Mr Lawrence Booth (of the firm of Messrs Blackwell Son and Booth), under whose immediate superintendence the church is being built; and the contractor for the foundations, which are now being constructed, is Mr John Hall, of Lowes. The church is rectangular on plan, having a tower and spire 120 feet in height, a nave and side aisles, a chancel containing stalls for the choir, and the sacrarium, an organ chapel and vestry. The total length internally, from west end to east end, will be 108 feet 6 inches, and the total width 58 feet The width if the nave, from centre to centre of the aisle columns will be 29 feet 9 inches, and the width of the aisles 14 feet 1a inches. The organ chapel and corresponding chapel on the south side will be divided from the aisles by means of a screen of open woodwork with metal work introduced therein. The nave and aisles will be fitted up with benches, as also the chapel on the south side mentioned above, affording accommodation for about 650 persons. The church will be in the Early English style. The materials will be, for the facings of the main body of the outside walls, parpoints of the Horncliffe stone; the dressings round the windows, quoins, sills and strings being of the Fletcher Bank or Birtle stone. Internally the architect proposes to use a few self-coloured materials, such as wall tiling above the wainscoting, red Mansfield stone in the shafts of the nave columns, and also in the small columns supporting the roof principals. The roof will be open timber, stained and varnished, and plastered between the spars, except in the chancel, which will have a curved and panelled ceiling. The height of the nave internally will be about 48 feet The whole of the woodwork, with one or two exceptions where oak will be used, will be of red deal, stained and varnished. The coupled shafts in the chancel will be of Cornish serpentine, and the floor of the sacrarium, chancel and steps leading thereto will be laid with Minton’s encaustic tiles, as also the porch, space around the font, and tower. [Builder 5 November 1864 Page 816]

Reference           Builder 5 November 1864 Page 816