St Thomas Ashton-in-Makerfield
NEW CHURCH ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD, LANCASHIRE: - The foundation stone of St Thomas’s new church, Ashton-in-Makerfield was laid on the ... instant by Colonel Legh of Lyme Park. The new church will be the third that has occupied the same site and, for the greater part, will be built on the old foundations. The style which will be adopted in the re-building will be early 16th century. The whole of the works are being carried out at a cost of £5,000 by Mr Winnard of Wigan from the designs of Mr Oldham FRIBA of Manchester.[Builder 26 December 1891 Page 491]
F H Oldham appears to have been related to a previous vicar of the Church, the Rev William Page Oldham, vicar 1870-71. A note in the 1908 vestry minutes notes that F H Oldham, the architect of the church, and his late wife gave the oak panelling to the south side of the sanctuary in memory of the Rev W Page Oldham.
A good building by Oldham of Manchester. Red sandstone with a low west tower. On the north side a transeptal projection set diagonally so as to fit the site. In this projection a rose window with entirely free tracery. Wide aisles, the arches dying into the piers. (Pevsner S Lancashire. Page 66).
Reference Builder 26 December 1891 page 491
Reference ICBS 09577 Rebuild. Grant application rejected