St James New Bury

A simple but dignified Victorian church of the 1860s, now closed for regular worship and standing in its own graveyard among the terraces of New Bury.

History

The foundation stone was laid on 9 August 1862, and the church was consecrated in December 1865 by James Prince Lee, the first Bishop of Manchester. It was built between 1862 and 1865 to designs by Isaac Holden & Son.

The building

The style is Early English. A steeply pitched and unusually deep nave roof, together with a tall gabled west belcote, give the church a strong vertical emphasis for its size. Inside, the scale is impressive: a whitewashed space under scissor-braced roof trusses.

Parish

St James's is recorded by the Diocese of Manchester as a closed church. The parish continues as St George with St James within the Seven Saints Team Ministry, New Bury with Great Lever, alongside St Michael with St Bartholomew at Great Lever, St Catherine's at New Bury and St Simon and St Jude.

Sources: Bolton Revisited; A Church Near You.