Report - St Thomas Church, Wigan - April 2025

[Benjy 28DL]

Explore -

As this place is quite local to me I thought I’d give it a go. I went as far to climb up what I can only describe as the narrowest spiral staircase to the church rooftop. The building is a lot bigger than I first expected and an overall great explore!


History -

St Thomas Church was built between 1902 and 1910 to replace the original St Thomas’ Church, which was consecrated in 1840. St Thomas’ is a large Anglican church of 1902-10 by Richard Bassnett Preston of Preston & Vaughan and features stained glass by J Powell and Archibald Keightley Nicholson.' St Thomas' officially closed after a final service in August 2015. The closure was due to spiralling maintenance costs approaching £1.5 million with services moving over to the nearby All Saints Church.

Apparently the church had to close after problems with asbestos and electrics were found, which would cost £1.5m to fix. It has since fallen into disrepair and targeted by vandals and fires. It became a grade II-listed building in 2017, for reasons including its design quality and historic interest. The church has since gone up for sale.

 

[Shaun]

Great pics mate

 

[Sewage_waste]

Agreed with @Shaun stunning set mate

 

[Bikin Glynn]

Really like this place, nicely taken.

 

[Bazza74]

Nice pics, decent looking church. Was there any evidence of drugs/rough sleepers? as it has been an issue in the past and was well boarded to stop them getting entry.

 

[HughieD]

Fantastic set of pics. Really need to see this place

 

[Mikeymutt]

Nice set, like that clock tower.

 

[MaxC_95]

Great Photos, love the shot of the three windows.
I checked the place out near the start of the year but chickened out because the entrance was through the basement and pitch black even with my flashlight on. They’ve since blocked that entrance up. Luckily, I just about managed to get in there over the weekend.
They’ve blocked the main hall off from the rest of the church so I could only explore the basement and the area up that really tight staircase, I would have to say it’s probably too dangerous to go in there now though, had the floorboards literally falling out from under us when we were in the upper levels and when I was on the top of the tower the roof sounded like it was going to go through at any moment even when we stood where the beams met and stayed over the joists, incredible place to explore but definitely a risky site now. I got some pictures of my own I’ll be posting soon as I took my camera with me but I need to get them off the SD first and I’ve lost my reader for that.