Congregational Church and Schools, Stubbins, Ramsbottom

NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, DAY AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS, STUBBINS. LAYING THE CORNER STONE. The above event transpired Monday afternoon last. … The church and schools will be built on the high road from Ramsbottom to Edenfield, and are being erected under the superintendence of Mr James Maxwell, of Bury, the principal contractors being Mr. Charles Warburton, Accrington, and Messrs. John Pilling and Co., of Edenfield. The style of architecture will be Gothic, of the 13th century. The entire building will be of sandstone from the immediate neighbourhood. The church is intended to accommodate about 750 persons, including galleries in each transept and the west end. The school is divided into day and Sunday school, and will accommodate about 500 Sunday scholars and 100 day scholars. The principal fronts of both schools and church will face the west, and will be plainly seen from the railway below. Their chief features consist of tower and spire about 42 yards high, at one corner of the church. The main entrance will also be in this front, communicating with the church by means of a corridor laid with tiles and separated from the church by an ornamental, screen. The corridor will be lighted by five handsomely coupled lancet windows, over which will be a five-light tracery window. The west front of the school will terminate in a bell turret, and the tower the church is constructed for four or six bells. The whole of the church will be seated with open stained deal seats, and every provision will be made for heating, lighting, and ventilating the building. The entire cost is estimated at £5,000. The interior of the church will be groined in plaster, and will be finished in every manner to correspond with the exterior portion. [Bury Times 2 September 1865 page 3]

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH AND SCHOOLS, STUBBINS - The school at this place was opened last spring, and it is hoped that the church will be opened by the middle of August. The site is very pleasantly situated about half-way between the villages of Stubbins and Edenfield, and commands a beautiful view of the valley of the Irwell. The church and school are detached buildings in the perpendicular style of architecture, and are built of fine white freestone, given Messrs. Porritt, of Stubbins Vale Woollen Mills. The school will accommodate about 600 scholars, and contains one large school-room, 60 feet by 30 feet; with day school, feet by 20 feet; and ten class-rooms, library, and kitchen. The whole is heated with hot water, has open timbered roof, and all woodwork is stained and varnished. The church is a fine specimen of perpendicular Gothic architecture, with groined roof, springing from small detached columns, with carved capitals ; the principal approach being from the west end by two doorways—one in the tower, and one at the other side by a porch. Both these doors lead into a corridor six feet wide, separated from the church by an ornamental stained-glass screen. The church will accommodate 750 people. At the south-west corner is a handsome spire 42 yards high, and the entire block of buildings forms an object of attraction many miles around. The architect is Mr. James Maxwell, of Bury. [Bury Times 20 April 1867 page 8]

STUBBINS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. OPENING SERVICES. The opening services in connection with the newly erected edifice commenced on Wednesday. lt is one of those memorial churches erected commemoration of the bicentenary of the ejectment of the 2,000 ministers from the Established Church in 1662, and we believe is the last of thirty erected in Lancashire for that object. It stands on eminence above Stubbins Vale, and overlooks the valley of the Irwell for miles. It is most substantially built of stone (given by the firm of Porritt Brothers and Austin, of Stubbins Vale Mills), and the style of architecture is that the fifteenth century. Its dimensions are 85 feet long by 40 feet wide, with north and south transepts 20 feet by 12 feet, and will accommodate on the ground floor 520 people, 140 in the west gallery, and 150 scholars in the transept galleries. There are no pillars to support the roof, which is one large vault, springing from attached columns, with finely-carved caps and corbels. The height from the floor to the centre of the vault is 45 feet. The principal entrances are at the west end, and communicate with the church by a wide corridor, separated from the interior by very handsome carved screen, glazed with diamond glass. The pulpit of Caen stone, statuary marble, and Irish green marble columns, and is a good specimen of stone carving. Over the gallery at the west end is five-light tracery window, filled with stained glass, Messrs. Edmondson, of Manchester ; the centre figure being that of Christ, with two of the apostles on each side, and figure representing David below. This window, the gift of Jas. Porritt, Esq., is in memory of his daughter, the wife of Joshua Townsend Esq., and is fine specimen of the art of glass staining. The spire at the south-west corner of the building is about 126 feet high, and is prepared for a clock and bells. The whole of the windows are glazed with cathedral glass, in lead quarries, with coloured margin, and the church will be lighted with gas; the whole of the fittings being fine specimens of mediaeval metal-work, by Mr. Dovey, of Manchester. The schools have been open some time, and comprise a large room 60 feet by 30 feet, with eight class-rooms; also the day school and infant day school. The whole forms one of the finest buildings in the district of a similar character. Mr. J. Maxwell, of Bury, was the architect.

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, RAMSBOTTOM - A large stained glass window has been placed in the west end of the new Congregational Church, Stubbins’s Vale, near Ramsbottom, co. Lancaster, in memory of the late wife of Mr. Joshna Townsend. The window is composed of five openings and tracery. In these openings are figures, life size, of our Lord in the centre, with the four Evangelists, two on each side, beneath canopies. Under these, and forming the base of the window, are smaller canopies, the central being occupied by a figure of David, king and prophet; and the side canopies are filled with the emblems of Evangelists, bearing scrolls, on which are inscribed the beginning verse of each Gospel. The tracery is filled with inscribed scrolls, monograms, and foliated works. In addition to this window the whole of the glass in the church is of an ornamental character, consisting of geometric work in different tints of cathedral glass and coloured borders. The windows are from the establishment of Messrs. E. B. Edmondson &. Son, of Manchester. [Builder 2 May 1868 page 326]

Reference    Bury Times  3 June 1865 page 2 – contracts
Reference    Bury Times 2 September  1865 page 3
Reference    Bury Times 20 April 1867 page 8
Reference    Bury Times Sat 10 August 1867 page 8
Reference    Bury Times 17 August 1867 page 6 – description
Reference    Builder 17 November 1866 Page 848