Church of the Holy Ascension Duke Street Lower Broughton Salford

NEW CHURCH FOR LOWER BROUGHTON - On Saturday afternoon the foundation stone of a new church in Lower Broughton, to be called the Free Church of the Holy Ascension, was laid by Mr S W Clowes, the lord of the manor. The site is a rectangular plot of ground adjoining the National Schools in Drake-street. The church is to occupy the southern portion of the plot. Accommodation is provided for 800 grown-up persons, all on the ground floor. The materials to be employed will be red and blue bricks with stone dressings. The roof will be slated. There is a nave and north and south aisles, each of four bays in height; a broad and long chancel ending to the east with a semi-circular apse. There are chancel aisles, gabled transversely and projecting several feet beyond the nave aisles. The southern one is intended for the school children and has an entrance in the western side. The other is to receive the organ and to serve as vestries for the ministers and for the choristers. The western wall of the nave is pierced with a great rose window and under it are three arches which open into the western porch. This extends the whole width of the nave and has doors at each end and on the centre of the western side. The font will stand under the centre of the three arches just named; the whole of the seats are to be alike and are simple wooden benches. The chancel is raised three steps above the nave and is fitted with two rows on each side of benches for the choir; and at the west end of them are the seats for two clergymen, not marked off or particularly distinguished from the choristers’ seats. Four more steps - seven in all - rise to the communion table, which is brought well forward to the chord of the apse, as is proper in an apsidal church. There are triple sedilla and a credence shelf. The altar rails are low and open. In the apse are three pairs of two light windows with shafted jambs and simple arched heads. The nave has a clerestory stage, its windows are simple openings - five in each bay - with pointed arches. The chancel arch is surmounted with a timber belfry with a high slated roof. Hereafter (funds permitting) a lofty steeple is to be erected to the north-west of the church. The design is so arranged that, even without the steeple, there shall be no appearance of incompleteness or want of finish. The western porch is covered with a low lean-to slated roof which finishes under the rose window before referred to. Flying buttresses stretch across it and receive the thrust of the nave arcade. The foundations are only now being put in but it is hoped that the rest of the building will be proceeded with early in the spring. It is intended to spend about £4,000 upon the building. The style adopted by Mr J M Taylor, the architect, is early pointed Gothic. [Manchester Courier 12 November 1866 Page 3 Column 4].

CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, LOWER BROUGHTON - On Saturday afternoon the Church of the Ascension, Duke Street Lower Broughton was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester in the presence of a large congregation. The church is designed for the accommodation of the Church of England portion of a population of about 6,000 in the district bounded by the river on the one side and by Camp Street and Broughton Lane on the other. The only church hitherto has been St John’s, Higher Broughton; but a school-church on an adjoining plot to the new building has been licensed for divine service and so used several years. The foundation stone of the new church was laid in November 1866 by Mr S W Clowes, who gave the site. The erection has progressed slowly for want of funds, and the church has been built in divisions as the money was obtained. It is not yet complete, as it is without steeple, some of the decorative finishings, boundary walls, etc, but the interior was sufficiently  advanced to permit of the ceremony on Saturday. ... The church will seat 800 and has cost about £4,000.

The church, from the exterior, is a particularly unattractive building from an architectural point of view. The architects appear to have been straitened by the necessity for economy; and while they have creditably overcome many difficulties, the result is anything but pleasant to the eye. The interior agreeably modifies the impression gained by the outside view; but the length from the west entrance to the chancel is so great, that now and then it will not be possible to hear the officiating minister.  The church is built mainly of brick, - stone being very sparingly used - in order to keep down the cost. The west gable contains a large rose window, of stone, with openings arranged in groups of three round a central figure. Below this is a row of little arches, resting on brick pilasters, and extending the whole width of the gable. Above, and on each side of the window are raised diaper patterns in red brick. Projecting from the main west wall of the nave is the great west porch, which fills in the rest of the space below the above-named arcade. There are doors at each end, and a lofty gabled door in the middle of the west side. The windows at the west ends of the aisles are each divided into two lights under one broad arch. The head is filled with a stone cusped circle and ornamental brickwork. Each bay of the clerestory has a row of five arches, the three central ones only being pierced for windows. There is another rose window in the south transept, with ornamental brickwork above it. The chancel is considerably higher than the nave, and from the centre of its ridge rises a circular slated bell turret. All the eaves have bold brick cornices, and other simpler ones run up the gables. There are circular buttresses at intervals round the chancel apse, resting on square bases, and finished at the top with stone carved capitals. There are three pairs of windows in the chancel, and two single ones. These have all shafted jambs and moulded heads, and most of them are filled with ornamental glazing. Standing in the nave and looking west are seen under the circular window three arches resting on pillars similar to those on the sides of the nave. Under the central arch is the font - a small one that has long been used in the school-church. There are four broad arches on each side of the nave. The shafts are of white stone with narrow bands of red stone at intervals. The two easternmost caps have been carved. The chancel is of a very unusual size for such a church. The height is great, and though it has no clerestory it is higher even than the nave. In area it is 44 feet 6 inches long by 21 feet six inches broad, and will therefore seat a large choir. The chancel is well raised above the nave floor, and just under the arch is a low wooden open framed screen, carved and ornamented, on one of the pillars of which is a lectern for the Bible. Since this was fixed a handsome brass eagle lectern has been presented. The choir seats are of pitch pine, and have carved and traceried heads. The pulpit is approached by two steps from the chancel and is of circular form. The upper part has a series of narrow moulded arches, and below them are curved alabaster medallions. The top moulded cornice is also of polished coloured alabaster. There is a central shaft of polished marble supporting the brass sermon rest. The body of the pulpit is of white Caen stone, and the base of brown Yorkshire stone. There are two prayer desks, north and south, just within the chancel screen. The communion table is about 8 feet long and not placed close against the east wall, but is brought forward to the chord of the apse. It stands on a foot pace. The body of the church is furnished with eight gas coronae, one suspended from above the point of each nave arch, in order to light nave and aisles. The chancel has coronae bracketed from the side walls; there are brackets in the transepts and elsewhere. The walls are coloured with quiet, warm tints, three or four shades being used. The design of the interior comprehends a considerable amount of mural decoration, for which the structural parts have been especially arranged; but as yet nothing of the sort has been commenced. The north transept contains the organ chamber (at present occupied by a harmonium) and vestries for the clergy and choristers, which are fitted with vestment closets, fireplaces, etc. The seats are all free. The design and conduct of the work have been in the hands of Messrs Medland and Henry Taylor. [Manchester Guardian 3 August 1869 page 6]

On 12 February 2017 the church was gutted by fire during which the roof of the building collapsed and the interior was totally destroyed.

Reference    Manchester Courier 12 November 1866 Page 3 Column 4
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 August 1869 page 6 – consecration
Reference    Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser Mon  2 August 1869 page 3
Reference    Manchester Times 7 August 1869
Reference    Pevsner: Lancashire: South
Reference    Bangor University: Medland and Taylor Architects Church Photographs and Drawings Reference code(s): GB 0222 BMSS MED. Includes photograph of the church