came along here on the way to another site and just happened to see the front door was open. went here with me friend lewis, at first i was a bit concerned when a dog lead fell out of his camera bag but it was all for the light spinning you see in one of the pictures,after been shown how to do it i got this one on my first go! 🙂Â
The church was founded in 1872, formerly belonging to the Primitive Methodists. The building was purchased by the Roman Catholics for use as a place of worship.
The existing chapel had been enlarged considerably and almost completely re-built. It was to accommodate 500-600 people at a cost of £3,000 in total. The house at the side of the church had been purchased as a residence for the Priest. The builder was a Mr. Aspinall, based in Caroline St. The church was then opened on a Sunday, dedicated to St. Joseph.
Strangely enough, five years later the foundation stone was laid for a new church on this site, the previous church of 1872 having seen to be expired owing to large congregational numbers of around 6000. The cost for building the church, which we see in rack and ruin today, came at a cost of just over £6,000.
The church was closed in 1995 and still serves no use with it’s Grade II listed status. The owner is a private developer who owns many properties in the Wigan area, including the bedsits attached to the church.
The last application for the churches conversion was in 2002 for a rock climbing centre which never came to fruition.
