St Paul's Church, Bury

St Paul's Church is in Church Street, Bury, Greater Manchester, England. A former Anglican parish church, it is now redundant and, following fire damage, has been converted into residential use. The former church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[1]

St Paul's Church, Bury
St Paul's Church, Bury, after the fire, before conversion
St Paul's Church, Bury Location in Greater Manchester
OS grid reference	SD 814 111
Location	Church Street, Bury, Greater Manchester
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
History
Status	Former parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	29 January 1985
Architect(s)	John Harper Austin and Paley (alterations)
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1838
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone

History

The church was built in 1838–42, and designed by John Harper of York. The land for the church was given by the 13th Earl of Derby.[1] In 1898 the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley carried out work on the church, including removing the galleries, repairing the roof, and installing new choir stalls and a font.[2] On 1 November 1995 the church was declared redundant.[3] It was damaged by fire in 2004,[4] and has since been converted for residential use.[3][5]

Architecture

St Paul's is constructed in sandstone in 13th-century Gothic Revival style. Its plan consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a chancel and a west tower. The windows along the sides of the church, and in the tower, are lancets.[1] In the Buildings of England series, the authors describe the pinnacles on the tower as "like apologetic eyebrows".[4]

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of thirteen soldiers of World War I and an airman of World War II. In 2006 a commemorative memorial erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission was temporarily stored away from the church until the conversion of the building into apartments was completed.[6]

See also

• Listed buildings in Bury
• List of ecclesiastical works by Austin and Paley (1895–1914)

References

1. Historic England, "St Paul's Church, Bury (1163874)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 30 July 2012
2. Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, p. 242, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
3. Diocese of Manchester: All Schemes (PDF), Church Commissioners/Statistics, Church of England, 2010, p. 3, retrieved 30 July 2012
4. Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 184, ISBN 0-300-10583-5
5. St Paul's Apartments, McGowan Residential Lettings, retrieved 30 July 2012
6. BURY (ST. PAUL) CHURCHYARD, LANCASHIRE, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 5 February 2013