St. Augustine's Church, Pendlebury

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Coordinates: 53°30′38″N 2°19′20″W / 53.51056, -2.32222

Church of St Augustine

St. Augustine's is a High Anglican church in the Diocese of Manchester, often called "The Miners' Cathedral".

It is situated just off Bolton Road (A666) in Pendlebury, which is one of the three districts which comprise the township and former municipal borough of Swinton and Pendlebury. The other two districts being Swinton, of course, and Clifton. Its address is 380 Bolton Road, Pendlebury, Manchester, Lancashire, M27 8UX. There is a primary school connected to the church (St. Augustine's C of E Primary School).

It is a Grade I listed building. It was built by George Frederick Bodley between 1871 and 1874, and was generally used by the coal miners and cotton mill workers that lived in the area. It has a capacity of 'hundreds', but nowadays, due to a decline in population and a decline in church attendances across England, the congregation numbers around the 30 mark.

It was described by Professor Nikolaus Pevsner, as being one of the most moving of all Victorian churches, he described the interior as being of "breathtaking majesty and purity" and that it was "one of the English churches of all time". It has a red brick exterior and an exquisite interior roof design, some of which is in need of restoration. It has detailed stained glass windows, as well as an impressive interior.

It was built largely at the expense of local banker, Edward Stanley Heywood, who donated it for the benefit of the local coal mining community.

The first vicar of the church was Doctor Dewes (b. Coventry 1825; d. Pendlebury 1911), who worked there from its consecration in 1874 until his death in 1911. He worked unceasingly throughout the smallpox and cholera outbreaks, and helped the poor and afflicted. Both vicar and church were the focal point for the mourning following the 1885 Clifton Hall Colliery explosion, in which 178 men and boys were killed^[1]. There is a memorial to the 178 killed miners in the churchyard immediately below the east window. The memorial states that, of the 178 of those who perished in the explosion on the 18th of June, 1885, 64 were buried in the churchyard.

The church was drawn and painted by L.S. Lowry several times.

Currently, the church is in need of at least £1 million for refurbishments to the interior roof and to repair the pointing on the exterior of the church, and is a priority project for English Heritage, who quote it as being "exceptionally important"^[2].