St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge

St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge
St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge, from the east
St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge Location in Greater Manchester
Coordinates: 53°31′03″N 2°30′25″W / 53.5176°N 2.5069°W / 53.5176; -2.5069
OS grid reference	SD 665,025
Location	Leigh Road, Howe Bridge, Atherton, Greater Manchester
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Atherton Team Ministry
History
Consecrated	7 February 1877
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	31 July 1996
Architect(s)	Paley and Austin, Austin and Paley
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1875
Completed	1877
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone with tiled roofs
Administration
Parish	St Michael and All Angels, Howe Bridge
Deanery	Leigh
Archdeaconry	Salford
Diocese	Manchester
Province	York
Clergy
Rector	Revd Reg Sinclair
Vicar(s)	Revd Jonathan Moores
Laity
Reader(s)	Cath Baines

St Michael and All Angels' Church is in Leigh Road, Howe Bridge, a suburb of Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Leigh, the archdeaconry of Salford and the diocese of Manchester. Its benefice is united with those of three local churches, St John the Baptist, St George and St Philip, forming a team ministry entitled the United Benefice of Atherton and Hindsford with Howe Bridge. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

The church was built between 1875 and 1877 to a design by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin for Fletcher, Burrows and Company, the owners of three collieries in Atherton. It cost £7,000 (equivalent to £600,000 in 2016), and was paid for by Ralph Fletcher. The church was consecrated on 7 February 1877, and became a separate parish in its own right in August 1878. In 1928 the church was reseated at a cost of £1,056 by Austin and Paley, the successors in the Lancaster practice, and in 1938 they added a vestry at the east end at a cost of £1,338. The United Benefice was created in 2002.

St Michael's is constructed in coursed stone with dressings of Runcorn red sandstone ashlar, and has tiled roofs. Its plan is cruciform, consisting of an aisleless nave with a north porch and side chapels, north and south transepts, and a chancel with a clerestory and aisles, and an attached meeting room and choir vestry. Above the crossing is a two-stage octagonal flèche surmounted by a tall spire. At the west end is a large central buttress flanked by two-light windows with pointed arches. Above these in the gable are three small lancet windows. On the north side of the church is a timber-framed porch with a gable and side windows. To the east of this is a single two-light window and two three-light windows. There are similar windows on the south side of the nave. The chapels have two-light windows on the west and three-light windows on their sides. The transept gables contain a three-light window flanked by buttresses, and two lancets above them. In the clerestory there are three small lancet windows on each side. The large east window consists of five stepped lancets. There are further lancet windows in the rooms adjoining the chancel. Against the north wall of the chancel is a gabled stair turret decorated with blind arcading.