St Pauls Church Astley Bridge

Consecrated in 1848 by the first Bishop of Manchester, and the parish church of Astley Bridge ever since.

Building and consecration

St Paul's was built in 1847–8 at a cost of £4,000. The site and burial ground — about an acre — were the gift of the Earl of Wilton. James Prince Lee, the first Bishop of Manchester, consecrated the church on 22 June 1848.

It was fitted with 745 sittings, of which 455 were free. The distinction mattered: in most Victorian churches the better pews were rented, and the proportion set aside free was a measure of how far a church was meant to serve the working population around it.

Enlargement

The church was enlarged in 1867, when the north and south walls were rebuilt further out and the aisles replaced by rows of pillars carrying two side aisles thirteen feet wide. Later alterations were carried out under J. Medland Taylor of Manchester.

Sources: Architects of Greater Manchester; Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project.