Lancashire

Churches

A church of 1845, in the early Decorated style, by A.W.N. Pugin

Lancashire remained a centre of Catholicism after the Reformation, and many records exist of chapels and regular worship in the C17 and C18. In 1787 approximately 23,000 Catholics and 62 clergy were recorded in the county. Mowbreck Hall, Wesham, maintained a chapel and priests. However, not until the Catholic Relief Acts of 1788 and 1791 could members of the church, throughout the country, be open about their faith. The first religious building on the site of the present church in Kirkham was a chapel built in 1809. It was known as "The Willows", a name that is still associated with St John the Evangelist.

The present building was erected in 1845 and is the work of A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852), an architect best known for his design, with Sir Charles Barry, of the Houses of Parliament. Pugin was responsible for a number of, mainly Roman Catholic, churches throughout England. But, it is as a polemicist and the influential author of "Contrasts" (1835), and "True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture" (1841), that he is best known. In the 1840s, along with the Cambridge Camden Society and its journal, "The Ecclesiologist", Pugin was responsible for English gothic architecture becoming much more archaeologically accurate. Here at St John the Evangelist, Kirkham, we see Pugin putting his principles into practice.

The church is built of stone in the style of the early Decorated period. At the west end is a tower with a broach spire of the type seen on many C14 churches in eastern and central England. Stepped angle buttresses reach just over half way up the tower. The west elevation has a three-light window with trefoils, and a doorway below. Above, the bell openings have two lights, and over all is the spire with three levels of lucarnes on alternating faces. A stair projection swells from the south east side of the tower. The tower is well composed and probably the best feature of the exterior.

The nave has a steeply pitched roof, accentuating, as Pugin would have intended, the verticality of the building. The chancel roof line is lower, but of the same pitch as the nave, whilst the aisle roofs are at a less steep angle. The clerestory windows are pointed quatrefoils with rather awkward looking hoodmoulds. Most of the other windows are variations on the Decorated theme - two or three lights, embellished lancets, sharply pointed trefoils, etc. The steeply pitched south porch sits nicely against the south aisle, and the whole building is easily read as an orthodox composition of standard parts.

Pugin's critics frequently describe him as an influential writer whose buildings rarely match his vision, and it is certainly true that his relatively small output includes some rather pedestrian buildings. St John's is a little better than that, but it does not reach the heights of his best work, such as St Giles, Cheadle, Staffordshire.

Inside the church Pugin's vision has been somewhat altered. At the west end, separating the porch from the nave, is the stone rood screen (the rood remains in place). It originally stood under the chancel arch and has multi-cusped ogee-headed openings with crockets and finials, trefoils, and a frieze of small angels separated by foliation. The whole effect, particularly in the colours it is painted today - cream and green with red and blue highlights, reminds one of a wedding cake! Pugin's original high altar has also been relocated, this time to the south chapel (dedicated to Our Lady). The font, located in the south west corner of the nave, is also by Pugin, and shows the symbols of the four Evangelists.

The nave arcade has round piers with double chamfered arches. Following the line of the arches, and embellishing the space above the columns, is stencilled decoration. It was painted in 1995, and is said to be based on Pugin precedents: it has green leaves, red flowers and crosses with foliage. The effect is delicate and effective. The pulpit, high altar and altar rails are of Carrara marble and were all, probably, the gift of Monsignor Gillow (a former incumbent) in 1906. All the pieces are deeply cut and richly ornamented with Gothic motifs.

In the tower is a peal of 6 bells cast by the Whitechapel Foundry in 1844. They have been claimed to be the first peal of bells hung in a Catholic church since the Reformation. In 1995 they were rehung, the original oak frame being replaced by steel.

The glass of St John's is characteristic of its period. Is it by Hardman? Did Pugin have a hand in any of the designs? 

A view from the south east

The church has all the aspiring characteristics that Pugin advocated in his writings.

The nave looking east

The view down the nave to the altar would have been interrupted by the rood screen (below).

Screen

Pugin's carved stone rood screen now serves to separate the porch from the nave.

North aisle chapel window

The window depicts St Helen with the True Cross. The red angels are an odd feature.

Pulpit (probably 1906)

Probably part of a set (including high altar and altar rails) presented by Monsignor Gillow.

Photographs and text © Tony Boughen