St John the Evangelist, CofE, Bolton Rd, Irlams o’th’Height (1842)
 (photo by Mrs Josie Potkin)
Architect unknown but possibly William Hayley. Chancel added in 1859-60, baptistery in 1882, and interior remodelled in 1881. (Hartwell, Hyde and Pevsner, Buildings of England: Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, p. 561. Note that the Anglicans used the round-arch style some fifty years before the Roman Catholics.

The Round Arch
The Newsletter of the Byzantine-Romanesque Revival Group
Number 2 (November 2013)

I have at last got around to bringing out this belated Number 2 of the Newsletter. In Number 1 asked for suggestions for establishing a website or blog. Mr Brian Farrimond kindly responded by setting up a blog at
www.theroundarch.blogspot.co.uk
It contains Number 1 of this Newsletter and Number 2 will be added to it. I also hope to add the various photographs of churches sent to me by members. Putting photos on the blog rather than in the Newsletter will perhaps be welcome to those members who receive the Newsletter by e-mail.

My The Artifice of Eternity: The Byzantine-Romanesque Revival in Catholic Lancashire has been remaindered as is now available directly from me (post-free) at £10 (cheques should be made payable to Mr J. A. Hilton) at
282 Whelley
Wigan
Lancashire
WN2 1DA
Newsletter Number 1 mentioned that two free supplements were available from me. There are now a total of five such supplements. They cover: 1, All Souls and St John Vianney, Salford (now demolished); 2, Our Lady of the Rosary, Leigh; 3, St Joseph, Heywood; 4, English Martyrs, Urmston; 5, Our Lady of Lourdes, Southport. They are all available (free) from me. I would be grateful to be informed of any other neo-Byzantine Romanesque Catholic churches in the historic county of Lancashire that I have missed.

My Antonio Barluzzi: Architect of the Holy Places is still available from me at £1 (post-free).

Two interesting articles appeared this year in Andamento: the journal of the British Association for Modern Mosaic, vol. 7 (2013). One was Robert Field, ‘A Legacy of Inspiration and Beauty: Eric Newton and the Oppenheimer Family Firm’. Here in Lancashire Eric Newton is probably best known for his mosaic east end of St John’s, Rochdale, arguably the finest neo-Byzantine church in the county, but the Oppenheimers were also responsible for work at Lille Cathedral, Armagh Cathedral, Killarney Cathedral, Cobh Cathedral, Killlarney Cathedral, the National Library and the National Museum of Ireland, the University of Cork, Holy Cross in Charlesville, St Olcan’s in Armoy, the Redemptorist Monastery in Belfast, the Royal Hospital School in Holbrook, Our Lady and St John in Manchester, and the Sacred Heart in Sheffield. The other was Paul Bentley, ‘The Mosaicing of Westminster Cathedral: Past, Present and Future’. Several artists have worked on the mosaics for Westminster Cathedral, including Robert Annning Bell W. C. Symons, J. W. Clayton, Gilbert Pownall, Boris Anrep, Trevor Caley, Christopher Hobbs, Tom Phillips, and Leonard McComb, and the process is ongoing. Andamento is obtainable from the Association’s website at www.bamm.org.uk for £9-98.