St Barnabas' Church, Crewe

St Barnabas' Church, Crewe
St Barnabas' Church, Crewe
St Barnabas' Church, Crewe Location in Cheshire
53.1020°N 2.4628°W / 53.1020; -2.4628
OS grid reference	SJ 691,562
Location	West Street, Crewe, Cheshire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	St Barnabas, Crewe
History
Status	Parish church
Dedication	Saint Barnabas
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	14 June 1984
Architect(s)	Paley and Austin
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1886; 138 years ago (1886)
Specifications
Materials	Brick and red terracotta Red tiled roofs
Administration
Province	York
Diocese	Chester
Archdeaconry	Macclesfield
Deanery	Nantwich
Parish	St Barnabas, Crewe
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd Ralph Dover Powell

St Barnabas' Church is in West Street, Crewe, Cheshire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Nantwich, the archdeaconry of Macclesfield, and the diocese of Chester.^[1] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.^[2]

History

The church was built in 1884–85 to a design by the Lancaster partnership of Paley and Austin, and was paid for by the London and North Western Railway, being built near to its workshops. The church provided seating for 500 people at an estimated cost of £4,000 (equivalent to £550,000 in 2023).^[3][4]

Architecture

Exterior

St Barnabas' is constructed in brick and red terracotta with red tiled roofs. The architectural style is Perpendicular. Its plan consists of a three-bay nave, north and south aisles, a single-bay chancel, and a southeast vestry. Towards the west end is a shingled flèche. On each side of the church are three cross-gables containing the aisle windows that are timbered at the apexes. The gables at the east and west ends of the church are also timbered.^[2][5]

Interior

The authors of the Buildings of England series describe the interior of the church as "noble – clear, spacious and open, without being in the least bleak".^[5] The arcades consist of terracotta arches carried on pink sandstone piers. Between the nave and the chancel is an open timber screen. At the west end of the nave is a glazed screen forming a baptistry. The reredos and the pulpit are decorated with carving. In the seven-light east window is stained glass dated 1901.^[2][5] The two-manual organ was built in 1887 by Wadsworth, and extended in 1957 by J. W. Walker.^[6]

See also

• Listed buildings in Crewe
• List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin

References

1. St Barnabas, Crewe, Church of England, retrieved 7 October 2011
2. Historic England, "Church of St Barnabas, Crewe (1330053)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 7 October 2011
3. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", MeasuringWorth, retrieved 7 May 2024
4. Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, p. 235, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
5. Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 309–310, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
6. Cheshire, Crewe, St. Barnabas (H00010), British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 7 October 2011