The construction and history of St John's Roman Catholic Church in Wigan

St John's Church is a Roman Catholic Church in Standishgate, Wigan, Greater Manchester. It is a Grade II* listed building that opened in 1819. Construction on the church was done in a spirit of competition with St Mary's, which is located within 200 feet of the site. Both churches were finished in the same year, 1819. While St John's was originally served by the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits gave the church to the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 1933.

Fr Charles Brockholes SJ was the first person connected to the mission of St. John's. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1704 and was sent to Wigan in 1740. Upon arriving in Standishgate, he paid for the building of a house that had a chapel upstairs. This house was built between Dicconson Street and Powell Street and, as of 2013, still has a priest hiding hole above a fireplace.

In 1817, the increasing Catholic population of the town meant there were calls for a larger place of worship. The foundation stone for the new church was laid on 27 January 1818 on a plot of land behind the chapel. The church opened on 24 June 1819, costing £9,000 and accommodating 1,000 people. It was 120 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 50 feet high, with room for the parishioners in the organ gallery.

Over the following decades, the church was extended and renovated. In 1849, the interior was decorated at a cost of £400. Since 2018, St John's has been part of St William's parish. Like St Mary's, St John's has two Masses for Sundays, with times that do not conflict with its neighbor.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons