St John the Baptist, Rochdale
St John the Baptist, Rochdale
St John the Baptist is a Grade II* Roman Catholic church on Dowling Street, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in the Diocese of Salford, a Byzantine Revival church with a concrete dome and a sanctuary mosaic by Eric Newton.
- Location
- Rochdale, Greater Manchester
- Country
- England
- County
- Greater Manchester
- City / town
- Rochdale
- Address
- Dowling Street, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, OL11 1EX
- Postcode
- OL11 1EX
- Built
- 1925–27
- Architect
- Henry Oswald Hill; executed by Ernest Bower Norris
- Denomination
- Catholic Church
- Dedication
- John the Baptist
- Diocese
- Salford
- Parish
- St Gabriel and the Angels and St John the Baptist
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Byzantine Revival
- Materials
- Red brick with artificial stone dressings; ferro-concrete dome and barrel vaults
- Grid reference
- SD 898 127
- Opening hours
- Please contact the church for more details.
Overview
Historic England records an original design from before 1917 by Oswald Hill (d. 1917), executed in 1925–27 by Ernest Bower Norris of Hill, Sandy and Norris. Canon Henry Chipp, parish priest from 1897 to 1936, wanted a church in the Byzantine manner of Hagia Sophia, inspired by Westminster Cathedral. The builders were R & T Haworth of Rochdale. A projected campanile was never built. The plan is cruciform with a central ferro-concrete dome 95 feet (29 m) high and 65 feet (20 m) in diameter, a narthex, vaulted transepts and an apsidal sanctuary. Walls are red brick in English garden wall bond with artificial stone dressings.
The apse is faced in a mosaic scheme of 1932–33 on the theme of Eternal Life, designed by Eric Newton of Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd, Manchester, at a cost of £4,000. Christ the King appears with angels and twelve sheep; side panels show the Baptism of Christ and the beheading of St John. Furnishings brought from the nineteenth-century church include a font of 1830 by Lupton and an altar and pulpit of 1898 by Alberti. The church is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register because of water ingress. The parish is now united with St Gabriel and the Angels, Castleton.