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Sacred Heart Church, Blackpool

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Sacred Heart Church
Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary[1]
Sacred Heart Church, from Talbot Road
Sacred Heart Church, from Talbot Road
53°49′10″N 3°03′13″W / 53.8195°N 3.0537°W
OS grid reference SD 30726 36433
Location Blackpool, Lancashire
Country England
Denomination Roman Catholic
Architecture
Functional status Active
Heritage designation Grade II*
Designated 20 October 1983
Architect E. W. Pugin
Style English Gothic
Completed 1857
Administration
Province Liverpool
Diocese Lancaster

Sacred Heart Church is a Roman Catholic church in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, on Talbot Road close to the town centre. It was the first Roman Catholic church built in Blackpool and has been designated a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage.

History

Sacred Heart Church was founded by the Jesuits as the town's first Roman Catholic church.[1][2] It was built in 1857 to a design by Edward Welby Pugin.[3] The church was enlarged, to the east, in 1894, to a design by Pugin & Pugin.[2] It was designated as a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage on 20 October 1983.[4][3] The Grade II* listing is for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".[5] Since 2004, it has been served by priests from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. The parish priest is Canon Robert Dewhurst.[6]

Architecture

The church is constructed of stone, with slate roofs, in the English Gothic style.[3] Its plan consists of a four-bay nave with an octagonal crossing, around which the aisles and transepts lie.[2][3] The lead roof over the crossing is pyramidal and has an octagonal wooden lantern with side tracery. The lantern itself has a pyramidal roof of copper.[2][3] The church tower is to the west; it has four stages with angled buttresses and corner pinnacles, and buttressed aisles with clerestories.[2][3] There are three-light windows in the aisles and four-light windows in the nave transepts. Stained glass in the nave windows was designed by Frances Barnett of Leith.[2] The windows of the 1894 extension are larger than elsewhere and have reticulated tracery. The large east window has stained glass, possibly by William Wailes.[2]

The nave arcades are supported by clustered marble piers with foliated tops and moulded lancet arches.[2][3] There is a two-bay gallery to the west.[2] The chancel is flanked by two lady chapels. The church fittings include a white marble octagonal pulpit that is carved and sits on red and black columns.[3]

There is a Neo-Georgian presbytery to the east of the building that was built c. 1950, and a former school to the west that dates from 1898.[2] The church has no graveyard.[7]

See also

  • Listed buildings in Blackpool

References

Bibliography

  • Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969]. Lancashire: North. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus (1969). North Lancashire. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-300-09617-8. OCLC 51622085.