St Brendan’s, Harwood

Sources

Catholic Bishops' Conference, Taking Stock: St Brendan, Harwood. The source URL contains a spelling error, but the page identifies the correct church. https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/bolton-st-brednan/ Survey history and architecture reviewed; current parish arrangements, access and statutory status require a separate check.

History & description

St Brendan's in Harwood was completed in April 1975 to designs by Greenhalgh & Williams. The parish had been formed from St Columba's, Tonge Moor, in 1971. Bishop Holland laid the foundation stone of the new church on 16 May 1974; a presbytery followed in 1978.

A post-war church interior
The rectangular building has brick walls, white concrete dressings and a tiled pitched roof carried on a steel frame. Tall, narrow windows light the nave and sanctuary. Ancillary rooms occupy a lower, flat-roofed section along one side.

Worship and design
The church was designed for about 250 people, with the altar facing the congregation. Taking Stock records the marble altar and lectern as original furnishings. An organ gallery stands above the entrance area. The building offers a useful comparison with the larger, more elaborate nineteenth-century churches elsewhere in Bolton.

Map position: church point or building centre from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Photograph: St. Brendan's Church - geograph.org.uk - 7103558.jpg by philandju, via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0. Shown at reduced size; no other alterations.