Damp in the Dimple

Our beautiful Dimple Chapel is suffering from damp and we are fundraising to have the damp repaired.  Please give kindly and help us restore our Dimple Chapel to its former glory.

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The Dimple Chapel has some fantastic history, continue reading below…

THE HISTORY OF THE DIMPLE CHAPEL

The Dimple Chapel (South Transept) was built in 1867 as part of an enlargement of Christ Church needed as a result of the increasing population of Egerton and Bromley Cross. At that time the Chancel where the high Altar is and the North Transept were built at the same time, together with the Vicar’s Vestry and Organ Chamber. The Architect for the project was Edward Paley of Lancaster, who had been a partner of Edmund Sharpe, the Architect who built Christ Church in 1839. Paley was responsible for a number of churches in Bolton in particular All Souls in Halliwell, St. Mathews in Little Lever and Bolton Parish Church on Churchgate.

The stained glass window in memory of William Slater of Dunscar Bleachworks was made by Ballantine and Gardiner of Edinburgh and installed in 1896.

Work on the Dimple Chapel as we know it today was undertaken in 1952 by the Parish Vicar Rev. Harry Nightingale and the architect Nugent Francis Cachemaille-Day, who designed some of the most revolutionary twentieth century churches in the country; one of his most famous churches is St. Nicholas, Burnage, Manchester.

The ‘triptych’ – trio of paintings – at the back of the Altar are by an un-named 15th Century Spanish artist and were bought from a private owner in London. The candelabra came from a farm sale in Cheshire.

One strange thing about the Dimple Chapel is that, behind the Altar, there is small stained glass window. You can only see it, but not very well, by looking on the outside of the building. Why they did this we really do not know. Why they did not move it to where the other small window with plain glass is remains a mystery.

Research by Derek Bailey, Sacristan, at Christ Church Walmsley.