Details
FLEETWOOD
917/2/26 ADELAIDE STREET
917/3/26 (North side)
31-MAR-78 PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER
(Formerly listed as:
LORD STREET
PARISH CHURCH OF ST PETER)
GV II
Parish church of 1839-41 by D. Burton, extended in 1883 by Paley & Austin.
MATERIALS: Coursed and dressed sandstone, rock-faced to nave and tower, with freestone dressings, slate roofs.
PLAN: Nave with west tower, transepts, chancel with separately roofed north organ chamber and south chapel.
EXTERIOR: The broad nave and the tower are in the simple Gothic style of the early C19. The 2-stage squat tower (designed to carry a spire that has been removed) has diagonal buttresses in the lower stage with gabled offsets, polygonal buttresses in the upper stage carried up as corner polygonal turrets in the corbelled and embattled crown. Entrances are in north and south walls. The west window is triple pointed lights. In the narrower bell stage are paired openings with louvres and linked hood moulds. The buttressed nave is divided into 5 narrow bays by gabled buttresses, built against pilaster strips, and corbel table. It has tall pointed windows and sill band. The eastern end is in a more developed Early-English style, with steeper roofs than the earlier work. Transepts have triple stepped windows with shafts (the north window blocked) and shallow lean-to west porches. East windows are varied although they are all of the same date. The chancel east window is 5 lights, the central taller, and with tracery circles above the outer pairs of main lights. In the south chapel the east wall has 4 blind arches on shafts, 2 enclosing small quatrefoil windows, and with 4 lights to the south window. The organ chamber has an east window of 2 lights with hood mould.
INTERIOR: The interior is relatively plain, with plastered round chancel arch, but the narrow tower arch, rising to gallery level, has a continuous moulding. The polygonal nave ceiling has moulded ribs on corbelled brackets, with 2 ceiling-rose ventilators. The chancel has 2-bay arcades to chapels and transepts with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and arches. Transepts have open roofs incorporating semi-circular braces above the tie beams, and with boarded panels behind defined by moulded ribs. The chancel has a closed wagon roof with moulded arched braces and plaster infill. Walls are plastered. The floor is partly stone-paved, and there are raised floorboards below pews.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The slender octagonal font is on a tall stem, probably of 1841. A west gallery, with panelled front, is above a glazed screen added in 1994 to create a separate parish room at the west end of the nave. Nave benches have moulded, shaped ends, and choir stalls have simple panelling, probably both of the late C19 or early C20. Polygonal pulpit and reading desk are dated 1960. The organ, of 1924, is by James Binns of Leeds and incorporates the Binns patent tubular pneumatic action. The Te Deum east and other early C20 windows are by Ward & Hughes, and the south transept window of St Peter is by R.B. Edmundson & Son (1860).
HISTORY: Built in 1839-41 by Decimus Burton as an integral component of the new town of Fleetwood, laid out by Burton for Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood (1836-43). Burton (1800-81) was the son of a London builder, began his career in 1821 and retired in 1869. His architecture was essentially undogmatic and scenic, which is not to say that it could not be tough-minded when necessary. He is particularly associated with urban planning, having assisted his father in the design of terraces at Regent's Park and at St Leonards, East Sussex. His major works in this genre is the Calverley Estate in Tunbridge Wells (1828 onwards). Although best known for work in Greek Revival style, all his small number of churches are in plan gothic styles, of which St Peter's is not unrepresentative. At Fleetwood, a scheme only partly completed, he also designed the North Euston Hotel, Queen's terrace, the Custom House and two lighthouses. The east end of the church was extended in 1883 by Paley and Austin, architects of Lancaster, who added the present transepts, chancel, vestry and chapel. The spire was removed in 1904.
SOURCES:
C. Hartwell and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England, Lancashire North, 2009, p 292.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Peter, Fleetwood, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The church is an integral component of Fleetwood, a planned town designed by Burton.
* The east end combines harmoniously with the earlier work and is by Paley & Austin, one of the leading late C19 ecclesiastical architectural practices in the north of England.
