St Catharine's Church, Scholes

St Catharine’s Church stands in Scholes, a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan. It is an active Anglican parish church designed by Edmund Sharpe, a Lancaster architect, and built between 1839 and 1841. The church received a grant of £962 from the Church Building Commission towards its £3,180 cost. Land for the church was donated by John Woodcock of Springfield Hall, and it began as a chapel of ease before becoming a full parish church in 1864. A geological fault and nearby coal mining caused the west end to shift, making the spire lean and twist, which required repairs funded partly by local collieries. The church is constructed from Billinge sandstone with slate roofs in Early English style. Its plan includes a six-bay nave with north and south aisles, a south vestry, and a short chancel. The west end features a tall steeple with a square tower, corner buttresses, pinnacles, and an octagonal spire topped with lucarnes. Inside, galleries on three sides are supported by cast iron columns, and the west gallery houses the organ. The interior retains original box pews and a glazed screen at the west end. The churchyard is enclosed by a listed sandstone boundary wall, and the brick-built vicarage to the south is also Grade II listed. In 2012, the church secured Heritage Lottery Fund support to dismantle, reinforce, and reconstruct the leaning spire to prevent collapse. Architectural historians Richard Pollard and Nikolaus Pevsner note the steeple’s disproportionate size, while Brandwood et al. praise the interior as the most intact of Sharpe’s churches.