St. Elizabeth’s, Aspull is a remarkable church. Unlike most other Wigan churches it stands on its own away from houses on the top of the ridge overlooking the town. A wonderful almost rural setting. Surely the only church in Wigan with a ‘Beware of the Bull’ sign in the field next to the churchyard. Yet it is clearly a ‘town church’, built out of red brick with a distinctive patterned roof.
St. David’s, Haigh, built in 1832, served the people of Haigh and Aspull for about fifty years. By 1882 when St. Elizabeth’s church was consecrated, Aspull’s population had quadrupled. Church building in Wigan in the later nineteenth century was a fashion and Aspull needed a larger, more fitting church.
Who stepped forward to pay for a new church? The area was fortunate to have two wealthy individuals. Roger Leigh was living at Hindley Hall. He gave £5,300 towards a new church and the 25th Earl of Crawford living at nearby Haigh Hall gave £1,200 combining to make the £6,500 needed to build the church. Roger Leigh, a lawyer, succeeded to Hindley Hall in 1867 and went on to become an MP in 1880. The 25th Earl of Crawford, Alexander Lindsay, who had become Earl in 1869, was an avid art collector.
The building they paid for is special. Their chosen architects were a Manchester firm, two brothers Harry and Medland Taylor. They have a reputation for producing more original, different buildings and that’s exactly what they built in Aspull. Inside, the brick work forms intricate patterns of different colours and the firm’s distinctive ironwork can be seen most notably above the entrance to the chancel where the word Alleluia is written twice in metal. The brothers also designed St. John’s, New Springs and the two buildings have much in common. St. Elizabeth’s, however, was not fully completed. The planned north aisle was never built but that takes nothing away from the church’s magnificence. The brick sides of the chancel have a distinctive waterleaf pattern and it’s surly the best font in Wigan.
Given its rural setting, it’s no wonder that Harvest was a special time at St. Elizabeth’s. In 1894 the Wigan Observer tells us that there were five services on Harvest Sunday and that the elders said that they had never seen the church look so well and had never seen it so full of folk. People had to be turned away. The only incident that marred the day was when ‘some strange men (not from Aspull) attempted to smoke at the church door and even in the porch’.
The windows in the church are a real treat. The ones which really captured our attention are the more modern ones. Harry Stammers is famous, designing stained glass windows for Canterbury Cathedral. Here, he designed the two beautiful baptistery windows which show people in 1950’s fashions including a child wearing glasses and others wearing ‘sensible’ shoes. These windows were given in memory of John Hesketh, churchwarden and headteacher of the church’s school for many years.
Best seen from the far end of the graveyard, St. Elizabeth’s is a fascinating building, very different to any other church in Wigan.
Brickwork inside and out
Original sanctuary lamps hanging from the ceiling donated by Revd. G. F Grundy
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