St Peter's Church, Fleetwood

St Peter's
St Peter's Church, from the south
St Peter's Location in Fleetwood
OS grid reference	SD 338 480
Location	Fleetwood, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
History
Status	Parish church
Consecrated	1841
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	31 March 1978 (1978-03-31)
Architect(s)	Decimus Burton, Paley and Austin (1883 extension)
Administration
Province	York
Diocese	Blackburn
Archdeaconry	Lancaster
Deanery	Poulton

St Peter's Church is in the seaside town of Fleetwood, Lancashire, England, situated on the Fylde coast. It is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn. It was completed in 1841, to a design by Decimus Burton. Burton had been employed by Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood in 1836 to lay out the new planned town of Fleetwood. It is protected as a Grade II listed building.

History

Fleetwood is a 19th-century planned town, the creation of local landowner and Preston MP, Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood. In 1836, he employed Decimus Burton to lay out the new town. The new parish church was one of the buildings Burton designed. It was built in 1839–41 (Hesketh-Fleetwood laid the foundation stone) and consecrated in 1841. Hesketh-Fleetwood's aunt, Anna-Maria Hesketh of Tulketh Hall, financed the construction of the tower and spire; the spire was taken down in 1904 for safety reasons. In 1883, the east end of the church was altered by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin, who added a chancel, a transeptal chapel and an organ chamber. These alterations cost £3,000 (equivalent to £380,000 in 2023).

Architecture

St Peter's stands on a raised piece of land in the town centre. Surrounded by an iron palisade, it is constructed of grey rock-faced stone with red sandstone ashlar dressings. The side walls and the tower have lancet windows. The nave is aisleless. Of the church's design, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner commented "It could be by anybody."

The church has space for 400 people; originally 200 more could be accommodated in the galleries to the north and south; these were removed in 1960.

Assessment and administration

St Peter's was designated a Grade II listed building on 31 March 1978.

St Peter's is an active parish church in the Anglican Diocese of Blackburn, which is part of the Province of York. It is in the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the Deanery of Poulton.

See also

• Listed buildings in Fleetwood
• List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin

References

Sources

• Brandwood, Geoff; Austin, Tim; Hughes, John; Price, James (2012), The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, Swindon: English Heritage, ISBN 978-1-84802-049-8
• Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969]. Lancashire: North. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-12667-0.
• Porter, John (1876). History of the Fylde of Lancashire. W. Porter. OCLC 12931605.

External links

Media related to St Peter's Church, Fleetwood at Wikimedia Commons