Church of St Mary
CHURCH OF ST MARY, SAINT MARYS WAY
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1356221
- Date first listed:
- 07-Nov-1966
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY, SAINT MARYS WAY
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-12-03
- Reference:
- IOE01/04240/23
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter Sargeant. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1356221
- Date first listed:
- 07-Nov-1966
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY, SAINT MARYS WAY
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY, SAINT MARYS WAY
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Wigan (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SD 65623 00302
Details
This List entry wwas subject to a Minor Amendment on 04/12/2017
1480/2/36
LEIGH,
SAINT MARY'S WAY (North side)
Church of St Mary
07-NOV-1966
GV
II*
Church. 1869-73 but concealing a 1516 tower and with a vestry added in 1910. By Paley and Austin. Hammer-dressed sandstone with lead roof. Nave and chancel under a continuous roof with clerestory, aisles, side chapel and west tower. Gothic Revival in a Perpendicular style. 6-bay nave and 2-bay chancel with weathered buttresses, weathered plinth and castellated parapet. Each bay has a 3-light aisle window with rectilinear tracery and hoodmould and 2-light flat-headed clerestory windows. Statue within canopied niche in gable of porch in bay 1. The change from nave to chancel and aisle to side chapel is only expressed externally by a heavier buttress and diagonally set side chapel door and by enrichment to the parapet and larger clerestory lights. Octagonal pinnacled piers terminate the chancel which has a raked parapet and a S-light east window. The 1910 vestry is virtually free standing to the north. The tower, which is also castellated, retains the C16 studded oak west doors beneath an elliptical arch; it has weathered diagonal buttresses, a 3-light west window, and paired 2-light belfry openings below clock faces.
INTERIOR: C16 tower arch and evidence of original roofline and springing point of nave arcade. Octagonal piers support double-chamfered nave arcade arches. Tie-beam and hammer-beam roof trusses except in north aisle which reuses a roof from the earlier church with moulded cambered tie beams and cross beams. Stone font, sedilia and piscina. Timber fittings include an altar of 1705 by Thomas Naylor in Lady Chapel. Also brought from the earlier church are oak canopies from the wardens seats (1686) and a C18 brass candelabra. Encaustic tiles in choir and sanctuary.
Virtually all the fittings were designed by the architects and made by Messrs, Hatch of Lancaster. The elaborate chancel altar and reredos of 1890 were also made to the designs of the architects and painted and gilded by Shrigley and Hunt. Stained glass: windows in Lady Chapel, south aisle and several in north aisle by Shrigley and Hunt 1887-1933. Others by Kempe, 1905.
This is a fine example of Paley and Austin's grand style of church and it is one of their earliest. It is also a very early use of the Perpendicular style. The interior retains all its original fittings including the benches in the nave and the brilliantly painted altar and reredos stand out in contrast to the sombre oak.
E, Baines, History of Lancashire, 1888.
Listing NGR: SD6563200306
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 213505
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Baines, E, The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster, (1888)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 10:29:44.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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