Description

PRESTON

SD5229 WESTON STREET 941-1/6/288 (East side) 12/06/50 Church of St Walburge

GV I

Roman Catholic church. Begun 1850, opened 1854, tower completed c.1857 and spire added 1867, all by J.A.Hansom; with apse 1872, by Nichols of London. Coursed brown sandstone rubble with lighter-coloured sandstone dressings, slate roof; steeple of white limestone. Nave with short 3-sided apse and very tall south steeple. The nave and apse are in C13 French Gothic style, the steeple of C15 East Midlands type. The nave, a very large single-cell vessel with steeply pitched roof, has the entrance front at the west end: this has corner turrets with pinnacles and 2 large buttresses framing a wide centre and narrow outer bays, the centre containing coupled trefoil-headed doorways with shafts under a 2-centred arch moulded in 2 orders, the outer bays with cusped 2-centred arched doorways; over the whole, an arcade of nine 2-centred arched 2-light windows with shafts, quatrefoil heads and linked hoodmoulds; a very large wheel window in the centre, and spherical triangles with trefoil trecery in the outer bays; and over the wheel window an arcade of 5 stepped lancet lights. The 13-bay side walls have emphatic buttresses, and tall attenuated 2-centred arched 3-light windows with slender shafts and bar tracery quatrefoils in the heads; the 3-sided full-height apse, in matching and accentuated style, has full-height buttresses terminating in pinnacles, with blind-arcading to the top stages, and very tall attenuated windows with slender shafts and multifoils, with 3 lights in the east end and 2 lights at the sides, all under relieving arches. The tower (to the right of the 7th bay) is square in plan and of 3 tall stages, elevated on an open base of large 2-centred arches, with angle-buttresses terminating in pinnacles and a shaft in the centre of each side adding vertical emphasis, 2 tall slender 2-light belfry windows in each side, with shafts, cruciform tracery, and gablets with pinnacles; and a very tall octagonal spire (reaching 314 feet), the base clasped by pinnacles and small arched flying buttresses, with 2-light lucarnes in the cardinal sides. INTERIOR: like a medieval hall, with a spectacular hammer-beam roof which has painted statues on the hammer beams, arch bracing and cusped tracery; corbelled canted wall-pulpit on north side, with sounding board, and approached by wall-staircase with 3 arched windows which have cusped tracery; former organ loft in tower with large arched opening and projected gallery; elaborate wooden west gallery (with organ relocated from tower 1877); panelled dado, and windows with geometrical-patterned stained glass (by Maycock); various stained glass memorial windows at east end, by Hardman of Birmingham and Mayer of Munich, including one to Henry Lord Holland.

Listing NGR: SD5296029870

External Links

• Church of St. Walburge, Preston at Wikipedia
• Church of St. Walburge, Preston official website
• Wikidata Q5117344

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
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