St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge
| St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge |
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The church from the southwest
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 St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church,
Lever Bridge Location in Greater Manchester
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| Coordinates: 53°34′20″N 2°24′18″W / 53.5722°N 2.4051°W | |
| OS grid reference | SD 732,084 |
| Location |
Darcy Lever, Bolton, Greater Manchester |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Churchmanship | Open Catholic |
| Website | St Stephen and All Martyrs |
| History | |
| Consecrated | 26 June 1845 |
| Architecture | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 26 March 1964 |
| Architect(s) | Edmund Sharpe |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1842 |
| Completed | 1844 |
| Construction cost | £2,600 |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Terracotta, slate roofs |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Lever Bridge |
| Deanery | Walmsley |
| Archdeaconry | Bolton |
| Diocese | Manchester |
| Province | York |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar(s) | Revd Susan Edwards |
St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge, is in Darcy Lever, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Walmsley, the archdeaconry of Bolton, and the diocese of Manchester. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is the first of three "pot churches" designed by Edmund Sharpe, so-called because they are constructed largely of terracotta.
The church was built between 1842 and 1844 to a design by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe. Other than the foundations and the rubble infill of the walls, the entire church was built in terracotta made by the local firm of the Ladyshore Coal and TerraCotta Company, which was owned by Sharpe's brother-in-law, John Fletcher. Many of the fittings that would normally be made from wood, were also in terracotta. There were problems in firing the terracotta resulting in considerable wastage but, despite this, the church cost only £2,600 (equivalent to £230,000 in 2015) to build. The church was formally opened on 18 February 1844, and consecrated on 26 June 1845 by John Bird Sumner, the Bishop of Chester. The land for the church was given by the 2nd Earl of Bradford. It provided seating for 471 people. Originally the church had an openwork spire, with crocketed pinnacles, a parapet with open tracery, and traceried windows. By the 1930s the spire had become unsafe, and it was dismantled in 1937. There had been plans to rebuild it, but the lower part of the tower was dismantled by the local steeplejack Fred Dibnah in 1966. Following the discovery of extensive dry rot in 1989 a programme of repairs, including the removal of the dry rot, has been undertaken.
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