St Alban's Church, Warrington

St Alban’s Church stands in Bewsey Street close to Warrington town centre. It is an active Roman Catholic church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool and part of the parish of Sacred Heart and Saint Alban. The building is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The parish began in 1772 when Benedictine monks from Ampleforth Abbey founded the first Roman Catholic church in Warrington after the Reformation. The present brick church dates from 1823 and was designed by Edward Alcock. In 1893 Peter Paul Pugin added the sanctuary, and in 1909 the west façade was remodelled. Pugin also designed the altar, reredos and Lady Altar, while Joseph Pippett painted the sanctuary’s saints. Inside, the free-standing stone and alabaster altar was made by Boulton’s of Cheltenham. The reredos shows the legend of St Alban, and stained glass in the west and side walls depicts other saints. The church’s registers date back to 1774, and the plan includes a nave, shallow apsidal sanctuary, west porch and five-sided baptistry.