More information : The Roman Catholic Church of St Jude was built in 1964-1965 in Poolstock Lane, Worsley Mesnes, Wigan and was designed by the architect L. A. G. Prichard. The area of Worsley Mesnes was coal mines and farmland belonging to the Downes family of Wardley Hall before modern expansion and development. Up until the Second World War the parish was served by the Roman Catholic Churches of St Joseph’s and St Cuthbert’s nearby, however housing development in the 1960s required a new parish and church. The church is notable for its stained glass and mosaics by Hans Unger and Eberhard Schulze of Germany who together also designed posters for the London Underground. A presbytery and a social club which are attached to the church were built in 1967. The exterior of the church is triangular in plan and is made up of a reinforced concrete frame with stained glass window bays. Infill panels are filled with solid pink-tinged brickwork. A flat roofed passageway links the church with the baptistery which features a reinforced concrete spirelet. There is a large concrete holy water stoup at the entrance porch and a concrete balcony houses the organ and choir gallery. The interior of the church features an altar and a sanctuary which retains its original Carrara marble altar, steps and rails. A blue mosaic clad plinth holds a mosaic crucifixion with the figures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John which was designed by Hans Unger and made by Eberhard Schulze of Germany. There is abstract dalle de verre stained glass on the walls of the nave and in the former baptistery which is by Robin Riley. The glass was made by Verriers de St Jobain in France and cut, shaped and fitted by the glaziers J. O’Neill and Sons. The church also has Stations of the Cross in marble frames by Earley & Co. of Dublin. The church contains some of the furnishings and fittings from the Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph which was closed in 1995. In 2007 the church was in use as a place of worship. (1)
The National Grid Reference for the building is: SD5717203485 (2)
Listed Grade II. Listed as `St Jude's Roman Catholic Church'. (3)
For the designation record of this site please see The National Heritage List for England. (4) |