Wigan Album

This church is idyllically set in a lovely situation and on the main road as well. Typical village church and it has had a lot of repair work done. Pass this way many a time.

Vb - I wouldn't call this a 'typical village church'. It's typical of dozens built to similar designs all around the Liverpool Anglican Diocese and Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the late 19th century as districts and towns expanded in the later years of the Industrial Revolution. The Churches followed this by building new churches, often funded by local benefactors (sometimes with the ulterior motive that they would be a reforming influence on workforces inclined to drink etc).
Unfortunately, they were a bit too enthusiastic in some areas, such as inner-Liverpool and much of Wigan - and many have closed, or are likely to, because of population shifts, and falls in church-going.

Yes I see what you are saying Reverend........ It isn't the 'pretty'' stone built church you would find in say Cumbria or Yorkshire. In fact the building itself is quite 'ugly'in a way which I don't really like to admit. It is the countryside surrounding it which I find beguiling. I imagine it a hundred years ago in the same setting practically to what it is now. Yes a lot of this type of building is closing down now because of congregations diminishing....and that is so sad. I belong to Sacred Heart in Westhougton a very modern church and I much prefer the old one we had previously .....similar to St Ellizabeth's. Which is I think looks more like a chapel really.

Well, the view you see from across the fields here may have been similar in the 1880s when the church was built - but the main road past the church had terraced housing along most of its length from the Westhoughton boundary to the Finger Post - areas known by the romantic names of Higher Gullett and Lower Gullett. Walter Wilkinson passed along that way in the 1930s, and described the scene in "Puppets Through Lancashire"in terms I found more derogatory to the locals than anything Orwell wrote about Wigan folk.

I think this church blends in nicely with the trees and fields, despite being a sort of "mass produced" bulding of the late Victorian age the bricks have weathered enough to give it a pleasantly warm appearance.

Must try to get hold of Walter Wilkinson's book Reverend I'll try the library on Saturday. I read Orwell's 'road.... '. Years ago Wiganers felt betrayed.

You can get it on Ebay for six quid Veebee. Get it sent for........then I'll borrow it when you've read it...... Times are hard you understand.