Landmark church goes on sale for £100,000

A landmark church is being has been put on the market for around £100,000.

St James’ Church, New Bury, Farnworth, which has been closed to worshippers since 2012, is being offered for sale. In early 2022, a draft scheme published by Church of England commissioners under the church buildings disposal scheme, gave details of proposals to create an art gallery, exhibition space and an artist’s studio at the building.

Recent marketing material said any sale would be dependent on the buyer obtaining planning permission for an alternative use. Built between 1862 and 1865 and designed in an early English style by Isaac Holden and Sons of Manchester, St James’ features a steeply pitched nave roof and tall gabled west bellcote’.

The church is constructed of local rock-faced stone with a scissor-braced timber roof covered in slate. Notable contents include the stone font, a tableau wood carving of the last supper and a stained glass World War I memorial.

There are a large number of graves, including Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard, which was closed for burials in 2011.

The graveyard is maintained by the council and public access to graves continues.

Marketing material on property websites listing the church for sale for offers in the region of £100,000 was released earlier this month. The sale material, states: “The church does require a degree of modernisation and refurbishment for continued use and the sale is conditional upon buyer obtaining planning and listed building consent for the use and alterations and restrictive covenants.”

Any sale would also need church commissioners bringing a pastoral church buildings disposal scheme into effect and agreeing the future of any burials, monuments or tombstones.

The Church of England also reserve the right to remove any of the stained-glass windows, pews, the pulpit, the stone font and other furnishings prior to completion.

A spokesman for Manchester Diocese said: "The church has been closed since 2012, so the decision has been taken to sell the building.

"Services continue at St John the Evangelist, Church Street, Farnworth, St Michael with St Bartholomew, Highfield Road, New Bury, Farnworth, and St George with St James, Daisy Avenue, Farnworth."