All Saints Church – Barton-On-Irwell

All Saints’ Church is situated on the the banks of the River Irwell in the parish of Barton. The church was designed by Edward Pugin and was built in the Gothic Revival style in 1868 by Sir Humphrey de Trafford, at a cost of £25,000. Grade I listed, the building ceased to be a parish church in 1961 and has since been used by the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.

Lambert Walker were appointed by architects Lloyd Evans Prichard to carry out a programme of conservation and restoration to the chancel ceiling and roof and masonry repairs to the chancel walls and window tracery. As a result of extensive damage caused by dry rot, repairs to the vaulted ceiling required the rebuilding of the timber substructure in many areas. These were replastered and then repainted to replicate the highly decorative paintings that were lost. Elsewhere the painted plasterwork was conserved in situ to retain as much original fabric as possible.

The timber roof structure was repaired, recovered with slates, weathered proofed with new leadwork and a new finial crucifix installed. Masonry repairs saw the reconstruction of gables, reusing original stonework and with newly carved replacements as required. Tracery windows were also repaired with newly carved stonework and extensive repointing was carried out using traditional lime mortar.