St Jude’s, Worsley Mesnes

After the Trust meeting this morning I called in at St Jude’s RC Church, Worsley Mesnes.

It was constructed in 1963/64 in an area of then new council housing, housing people following extensive slum clearance around central Wigan.

In plan form it’s an isosceles triangle with the corners cut off, so internally it’s much wider than it is deep, reflecting major changes to how the RC church approached the liturgy. There are twelve panels (six in view here) filled with staggered stained glass windows consisting of what are described in my Pevsner as “superb, swirling abstract dalle de verre “. The church was closed, but from images online the interior is flooded with coloured light, very different to the austere exterior.

The RC church firmly embraced modern architecture after the Second World War, with notable examples in northern England (the outstanding example being Liverpool’s metropolitan cathedral). It’s definitely “brutalist” although I’m not sure the church would welcome that description.

St Jude (Judas Thaddeus) is one of the 12 apostles, and the patron saint of desperate and impossible causes. The building is Grade 2 listed as of architectural importance. It won’t be to everyone’s taste.