Wigan Album

Well found, Alan - where was it?
The strange thing about the pic is that it appears that the spire is leaning off to the right. In fact, the inclination was towards the left of the photographer.

David, I suspect the spire appears to be leaning to the right because of the lens effect of 'converrging verticles' - very common of course and in fact the further from the centre of the photograph you look, the more exagerated it's effect. And the effect is also exagerated further by very wide lenses.

If the ground the photographer was standing on was uneven or on a different level, in relation to the church, this could explain Rev David Long's query.

I used to play in Holland street - I find it quite sad. I wonder if they would pull those houses down now or if they would be refurbished. We used assemble in front of the Church for walking day.

Its a well known fact among a few folk that the steeple was leaning from day one, some people know a lot and say little others say a lot and know little.

I know the church was built after the school (circa 1834), I think around 1843 - quite usual apparently for the Church Authorities to build a school first. The church then is approx 170 years old.

The photograph has been available in Church fr some time. Thanks for the technical information as to the possible reason for the leaning element of the steeple. I think the "lean" was most noticable from the Higher Ince area. It is well known that the church is built on a sandy deposit with little or no foundations. You can see how the front elevation of the church moved away from the body towards Scholefield Lane by just looking at the relative positions on the northern elevation. The work to re-build the steeple also included providing substantial foundations below the tower otherwise the same thing would have happened again. The Church was opened in 1841. A booklet of "The First 150 years Of St Catharine's Church was prduced in 1991 by Bill Bithell, a long standing memeber of the Church, and a great read it is too with many facts and figures, photographs and a description of what life was like in the early days.