Building record 83/1/0 - Church of St Luke, Farnworth

<1> Pevsner N, 1969, The Buildings of England: South Lancashire, p.111-2 (Book). SCH3081.

A church of some antiquity. The western wall is probably in part of twelfth century in date and the attached tower dates from the fourteenth century. The nave is a mix of fifteenth and seventeenth century. The northern arcade of the nave, northern aisle and Bold Chapel were rebuilt in 1855 and restored in 1892-5. The timber framed gables of the transept and chapel probably date from the fifteenth or seventeenth century. The panelled chancel roof with the griffin of the Bold family dates from the fifteenth century. The southern transept was also a chapel built by Bishop Smith of Lincoln for the inhabitants of Cuerdley. Many of the interior wooden fittings date from the seventeenth century. The church contains a number of funerary monuments dating from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 56055 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Parish Church 1190 with fourteenth century tower and alterations in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Red sandstone with slate roof. Square west tower five bay nave,side aisles, a south transept and chancel narrower and less lofty than the nave. Entrance porches are opposite in north and south aisles. Tower has corner buttresses, curvilinear west window and smaller louvred windows to all faced at bell-stage. Aisle windows curvilinear or lancet forms but there are perpendicular windows in the chancel and south transept. Clerestorey windows are pitched dormers, very little stained glass. The tower, chancel and transept are crenellated and the chancel has crocketted finials. Interior arcade gothic arches supported on octagonal columns with exception of the two north east bays which are circular with stiff leaf caps and common to the memorial chapel. The chancel has choir stalls with poppyheads. Oak screens separate the chapel from the north aisle and nave and the choir from the organ chamber. The chancel has a fine panelled oak ceiling and the nave braced collar trusses. The chapel contains good alabaster and marble monuments from 1635 and 1822.

<3> Farrer W & Brownbill J, 1906-14, The Victoria County History of the County of Lancaster, Vol.III p.389-392 (Book). SCH3636.

A c.1180-1200 aisleless nave and chancel church originally dedicated to St Wilfrid. Full description and history.

<4> Cheshire County Council, 2002, Cheshire Historic Towns Survey: Halton District Part 1: Archaeological Assessments, Widnes p.3-5 (Report). SCH6976.

There was a church at Farnworth from at least the late twelfth century, which was dedicated to St Wilfrid until the nineteenth century when it was changed to St Luke. It was a dependent chapelry until the nineteenth century although there were attempts to secure its independence from Prescot from the end of the thirteenth century onwards. The dedication of the church at Farnworth to St Wilfrid might suggest an early origin, but it was presumably always subordinate to and later than the parish church of Prescot.

<5> Foster A, 1981, A History of Farnworth Church, Its Village and Parish, p.2 (Book). SCH9423.

The early Chapel of St.Wilfred, Farnworth, has been described architecturally as late Norman, early English, and is generally accepted as being founded about 1180….. When King Aethelstan of Mercia seized the land between the River Ribble and the River Mersey he transferred his conquest into the Mercian diocese of Litchfield, so the early Chapel at Farnworth was first included in that diocese.