St Mark's Church, Worsley

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St Mark’s Church Worsley in Salford, Greater Manchester, England is built on a prominent 10 acre site formerly known as Cross Field and is a significant local landmark; it is now also a point of reference to the many who pass it on the M60 motorway, which bisects the parish. Its history is bound up with the emergence of Worsley as a cradle of the Industrial Revolution, at the hands of the Ellesmere family. Lord Francis Egerton, heir of the Duke of Bridgewater who built the canal that bears his name, commissioned the church, and he and the three following Earls of Ellesmere exercised strong influence until they left the area in the 1920s, having providing many other local facilities. It stands on Worsley Brow, in what is now a conservation area; the extensive churchyard is bounded by stone walls on the west and south (each with lych gates), the M60 on the east, and woodland on the north.

The church was built in 1844-6, at a cost of £20,000. It was one of the earliest of 470 churches designed by George Gilbert Scott (1811-78); according to his son he regarded it as one of his most successful and purest essays in the geometrical Decorated Gothic style of the late 13th and early 14th century, with careful attention to detail. There are numerous carved gargoyles, and the west end tower and spire (its base forming the west porch) have richly carved corner flying buttresses. The ring of bells was augmented to 10 in the 1934. The clock is famous for striking thirteen at 1pm, and was transferred from the estate yard to the church in 1946. The church is constructed of hard silica sandstone, with roofs in slate (from the Delabow quarries in Cornwall). Much of the hidden leadwork has been replaced with stainless steel.

Although outwardly imposing, internally it has the intimate feel of an estate church on the grand style. The design is traditional: nave (of five bays, with oak hammer-beam roof), aisles and chancel, flanked by vestry/organ chamber on the north and Ellesmere chapel on the south. The north aisle was added in 1852. The Ellesmere chapel was extended slightly eastward soon after, when a family vault below was constructed. (This was re-ordered as a weekday chapel in the 1920s.) Various additions were made in the 1880s – an ornate Italian marble and mosaic reredos, paving of the choir and sanctuary, carved choir stalls (by R. Knill Freeman) and a new vestry – as choral services were introduced.

The fittings throughout are of the highest quality, with original oak pews, a pulpit fashioned by Scott from carved panels acquired on his travels, a richly-decorated limestone font and the noteworthy tomb of Francis Egerton (plus good brasses and memorials to later members of the family in the Ellesmere chapel). There are twelve windows of the saints, also acquired by Scott, and variously alleged to be French, Belgian or Italian, plus two from the studios of Burne Jones. The aisle windows are Powell’s cast glass.

[edit] Bibliography

The Buildings of England - Lancashire: Manchester & the South-East (Yale University Press 2004) H.T. Milliken Changing Scene (1976) – a history of the church

Fuller architectural and historical details, including photographs and correspondence between Lord Francis Egerton and George Gilbert Scott, can be found on the parish website – [1]

DCMS Listing (2003)

1479/1/64 WORSLEY BROW SD74560069 (East Side) 19/7/66 Church of St Mark

Church. Built 1844-6; north aisle added 1851. By Sir George Gilbert Scott for Lord Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere. Snecked stone with slate and copper roofs. Nave with clerestory, aisles and west tower; chancel, side chapel, vestry and organ chamber. Gothic Revival in a C14 style. 5-bay nave and aisles with weathered plinth, weathered buttresses and coped parapet to aisle. Each bay has a 2-light window with Geometrical tracery. Gabled porch in bay 2. The chancel has a 5-light east window and is flanked by the side chapel and organ chamber all with parallel pitched roofs. The chapel has 3 bays and has added enrichment to buttresses and a pierced parapet. Imposing 4-stage tower with set back weathered and gableted buttresses has a weathered plinth, bands at each stage, west door, 3-light west window, clock faces on the third stage, 2-light belfry openings below crocketed gables and a dogtooth enriched eaves band with gargoyles. The spire is supported by flying buttresses and has gabled lucarnes at the base, all of which are liberally enriched by crockets and gargoyles.

INTERIOR: Decorated piers and double-chamfered nave arcade with hoodmoulds and head stops. Hammer-beam roof trusses. Carved stone font. The pulpit and organ case incorporate C16 and C17 carvings of French and Flemish origins, and the church contains much other woodwork of high quality including the choir stalls, sedilia and font canopies, and a near complete set of benches. The elaborate carved stone reredos with panels of mosaic and inlaid stone, mosaic floor and, probably, the fine iron screen (thought to be by J B Skidmore) were introduced in 1866. The monument to Lord Francis Egerton, d.1857, was designed by Scott, with effigy by Matthew Noble and decorative carving by J. Birnie Philip. The designer of the intensely coloured (possibly continental) stained glass in the east windows is unknown; window in south aisle (SA2) by Morris & Co., 1905. Outstanding architectural creation by Sir George Gilbert Scott over which he took great care. The church contains an exceptional group of fittings of both contemporary and antiquarian interest.