Bolton<\/a> has been a focal point of the area since it opened in 1848.<\/p>\nHowever, the Church of England\u2019s Diocese of Manchester has called a public meeting to discuss the building\u2019s future and told worshippers future Sunday morning services will be held at St Paul\u2019s School, Newnham Street, starting on Sunday, August 24.<\/p>\n
Astley Bridge councillor, Hilary Fairclough said \u2018St Paul\u2019s Church is probably going to have to close permanently\u2019 and cited costs for repairs could be more than \u00a3500,000 as \u2018the steeple has structural problems\u2019.<\/p>\n
A statement from St Pauls\u2019, said: \u201cThe church building is temporarily closed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be a public meeting about the church building on Tuesday, September 2 at 1.30pm at Astley Bridge Cricket Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be representatives from the diocese and church to, hopefully, answer all questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coun Fairclough, said: \u201cThis is a listed building that is a focal point of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe diocese would need to spend a huge amount of money on repairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI shall attend the meeting and put forward views from residents however I must say that if few people attend it is unlikely that the diocese will change their mind and agree to fund the work required.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s closed for the next four weeks for safety reports but it may not reopen depending on the results.\u201d<\/p>\n
St Paul\u2019s, which is close to Blackburn Road, was built in 1847-8 and was consecrated by the first Bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee on the June 22,1848.<\/p>\n
In 1867 it was enlarged with new walls erected north and south of the building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday services are to be held at a nearby school while safety reports are completed on the buildingSt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[279,748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-361001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-bolton","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115064509851589892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_st-p1.jpg\")
St Paul’s church, Astley Bridge (Pic – St Paul’s – Facebook)<\/p>\n