Pleasington Priory

Pleasington Priory
Church of St Mary and St John Baptist

Pleasington Priory from the southeast
Pleasington Priory
Location in Lancashire
OS grid reference SD 643 266
Location Pleasington, Lancashire
Country England
Denomination Roman Catholic
Architecture
Heritage designation Grade I
Designated 24 November 1966
Architect(s) John Palmer
Architectural type Church
Style Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking 1816
Completed 1819
Construction cost £23,000
Specifications
Materials Ashlar, slate roofs
Administration
Diocese Salford

Pleasington Priory, or the Church of St Mary and St John Baptist, is a Roman Catholic church in the village of Pleasington, Lancashire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.[1] The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as being "an astonishing church",[2] and the listing in the National Heritage List for England states it is an "exceptional form of Catholic chapel for the period before Emancipation".[1]

Contents

History

The church was built between 1816 and 1819 as a thank offering by John Francis Butler (later Butler-Bowden) at a cost of £23,000 (£1.43 million as of 2012),[3] the architect being John Palmer and the sculptor Thomas Owen.[1]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in ashlar with slate roofs. It is a large, tall church with mixed Gothic styles. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, and a polygonal apse. Entry to the church is at the west through a three-order portal above which are three statues on corbels.[1] On the underside of the middle corbel is a bust of John Butler in military uniform.[2] Above the statue is a carved arch, then a small parapet and a large rose window, and a gable with an openwork parapet surmounted by a crocketed cross. At each side of the portal is an octagonal turret with a three-stage pinnacle. Outside the turrets are offices, each with a niche containing on one side the name of the architect and on the other the sculptor. The aisles have five five-light windows and are battlemented; the clerestory has triple lancet windows and an openwork parapet. The apse has tall five-light Perpendicular windows. On the south side is a priest's door.[1]

Interior

The ceiling is rib vaulted with carved bosses and there are four-bay arcades with dogtooth decoration. On each side of the altar is a carved relief, one showing the Beheading of St John, the other Mary Magdalene.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St John the Baptist, Pleasington", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1072419, retrieved 20 May 2011 
  2. ^ a b Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002) [1969], North Lancashire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 190–191, ISBN 0-300-09617-8 
  3. ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.

External links