OS grid reference SD 644,003 Denomination Anglican Dedication Saint Peter Status Parish church Architect Sharpe, Paley and Austin | Country England Website St Peter Westleigh Opened 1881 Province Province of York | |
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Location Firs Lane, Westleigh, Leigh, Greater Manchester Address 12 Malham Cl, Wigan, Leigh WN7 4, UK Architectural style Gothic Revival architecture Diocese Anglican Diocese of Manchester Similar St Michael and All Angels' C, St Mary's Church - Wigan, Chaddock Hall, Christ Church - Pennington, St Mary the Virgin's Church - L | ||
St Peter's Church is in Firs Lane, Westleigh, a district of Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Leigh, the archdeaconry of Salford, and the diocese of Manchester. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It was designed by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin. The architectural historians Pollard and Pevsner describe it as "one of their most radical and thrilling churches".
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History
Building of the church started in 1879 and it was completed and consecrated in 1881. It cost £7,000 (equivalent to £640,000 as of 2015), and provided seating for 460 people.
Architecture
The church is constructed in red brick with Runcorn sandstone dressings. It has a slate roof. Its plan consists of a three-bay nave with a north aisle and a south porch, a two-bay chancel with a north vestry, and a central tower. Along the sides of the church are two-light flat-headed windows with Decorated tracery. The porch is gabled and has a niche for a statue above the doorway. The tower has buttresses, a three-light transomed window, and flat-headed bell openings. At the top of the tower is a parapet with an ashlar frieze below it, and a pyramidal roof. The east and west windows have five and four tramsomed lights respectively.
Inside the church the arcade between the nave and north aisle is carried on circular sandstone columns with moulded capitals. The stone reredos contains four niches with statues. The alabaster pulpit is large and elaborate; it was formerly in Manchester Cathedral. The stained glass in the east window dates from 1949 and is by Abbott and Company of Lancaster. The font incorporates polygonal shafts of green marble.