Three Forgotten Graves .... another story from Tony Goulding

This memorial to Helen Richmond Cox is one of three situated alongside a boundary wall of the old St. Clement’s churchyard in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. 

 Memorial to Helen Richmond Cox

All three are to a greater or lesser extent obscured by vegetation. Not that any actually mark their remains nor even the site of their graves. 

All the bodies in the graveyard were exhumed in 1930 and reinterred in Southern Cemetery then in the 1980s when Manchester Council decided that graveyard was in a hazardous state and needed to be landscaped, most of the memorials were removed then either destroyed or haphazardly replaced. 

Esther Floweth’s memorial

Some were laid flat to form a pathway with others replaced as ornamental features.    

One of the other gravestones records the birth and death of another child, Esther Floweth, who died on 1st March 1868 aged just 5 years and 9 months. The third is of Anne Ormrod, who was 80 years old when she died on 9th June 1867 while visiting her daughter on that forgotten road of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Lloyd Street.

None of these three burials were of a parishioner of St. Clements. Although Ann Ormrod was residing in the parish when she died, she was a native of Bolton, Lancashire. 

Helen Richmond Cox hailed from Stretford, and Esther Floweth lived in Hulme, Manchester. This is not at all unusual, as of the 841 burials recorded in St. Clement’s burial register between 1st January 1851 and 31st December 1876 only 320 show their “abode” as Chorlton-cum-Hardy. 

This comprises just 38% of internments.  However, closer examination reveals that with the expansion of the township’s population the trend from1860 onwards was for a gradual increase in the percentage of “local” burials.

Ann Ormrod’s gravestone

While many of those buried who were not residents of St. Clement’s parish were from neighbouring  townships of Didsbury, Withington, and Stretford the majority were from further afield. Hulme and to a lesser degree Chorlton-on-Medlock were the main areas although, Ardwick, Pendleton, and Salford also featured. There was even a small number whose homes were given as much further away in places like Blackpool and Everton!

The large number of non-resident burials obviously made a substantial contribution to the pressure which forced the Home Office to close the graveyard (1) following an enquiry on 25th November 1881.

It is impossible to know the motives involved in these choices to inter a loved one in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, but it is fun to speculate. One reason could be antagonism towards their local vicar leading them to worship in St. Clement’s. 

It could be a combination of the desire, with the industrial spread of Manchester during the middle of the 19th century, for a more idyllic place to bury loved ones offered by the still rural Chorlton-cum-Hardy and the opportunity for some extra revenue for the parish the burial fees would provide. 

Finally, it has been suggested that in some instances there was either no local church or one with a very limited if any graveyard. Some also will have had relatives buried in St. Clement’s. This was the case with Maria Birley of Southport, Lancashire, the widow of Rev. William Birley who had been appointed St. Clement’s first Rector on 17th February 1843 and served in that post until December 1859. (2)     

In this category also is the burial of Frederick Cope on 26th February 1874 whose home address was by far the most distant. After a successful career as a wine merchant in Manchester, when he resided for a time at Oak Bank, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, he retired to his birth county, Warwickshire, viz, Campion Lodge, Leamington. Following his death there on 19th February 1874 his coffin was brought north, and he was interred in the same grave as his wife Elizabeth and two of his children Emily Simms and Frederick Adam (3)

To conclude, like Ann Ormrod, one of the Blackpool residents, William Hughes, was also a visitor to the area. In his case after attending a sale in Manchester he intended to call at Barlow Hall hoping to get a position there and to look-up some old friends in the area he knew from his previous work as a coachman at the Hall, for Sir William Cunliffe Brooks. 

Barlow Hall - 1910

The unfortunate man was “found drowned” that being the verdict of the inquest into the circumstances of his death held at Jackson’s Boat on 17th December 1864.

The matter was widely reported in the press as he was found in “The Moat” a pit in the garden of the home of a prominent banker Conservative M. P. and a Baronet!

Pictures, Barlow Hall – 1910 by Jenny Wylie http://www.british-history.ac.uk/image.aspx?compid=41427&filename=fig99.gif&pubid=288, others from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) The order prohibited the opening of new graves and only allowed burials of those with a family plot and only if there was sufficient depth to adequately cover the coffin. The final burial was that of Thomas Caleb Butcher on 25th February 1916. (Blog story 22nd August 2020).

2) Rev. William Birley had become an inspector of schools and was the Rector of St. Stephen’s in Pendleton, Salford when he died on 27th July 1865, he was interred in his previous parish’s graveyard. Interestingly the entry in the burials register of St Clement’s shows that his abode was first entered as Chorlton-cum-Hardy before being amended to Pendleton.

3) Both of Fredericks children buried in this grave died young. His daughter, Emily Simms was just 13 years old when she died in April 1846.  Frederick Adam, his only son, died in a tragic suicide when he shot himself in the evening of Friday 1st July 1853. (Blog story 24th October 2015)

Round Field Holt ….. Albany Road …… and a man called Enoch Royle

This is the story of a road.

Albany Road, circa 1920s

Not that there is much to distinguish it from all the other roads which from the 1880s into the next century transformed a place of fields and cottages into rows of shops and houses.

Along the way this place had lost its ancient name of Martledge and gained a new one.

The new one was less romantic and was just a statement.

 So, when people called the surrounding area New Chorlton, or the New Village it was only to distinguish it from the old centre of the township located around the former village green and the long twisty lane we now call Beech Road which was always known as Chorlton Row.

But New Chorlton had the railway station, which had opened to a flurry of interest in 1880 and was accompanied by a goods yard for the unloading and temporary storage of “things”.

Coal reciept, 1963

And because we were still a coal age part of the yard was given over to coal merchants, some of whom have yet to pass out of living memory, along with the Bailey family who regularly “walked” their newly arrived animals from the goods yard through Chorlton to their farm on St Werburgh’s Road.

As for Albany Road it was not cut until 1885, and then only extended to number 57, with the remaining seven houses coming along about nine years later.

To which will now be added a “4 storey building to form 40 residential apartments, together with cycle and car parking, bin store, landscaping, and boundary treatments” at 4B Albany Road.

Its a development which will replace a low-rise industrial building dating back to 1983.*

This plot has had a chequered past having once been railway land sitting at the end of the goods yard and briefly for a period in the 1920s into the 1930s was home to a tennis court.

Go back another century and it was farmed as arable land by William Knight and owned by the Egerton Estate.  Mr Knight counted 72 acres of arable, pasture and meadow land in his holding of which our spot had the delightful name of Round Field Holt.

Enoch Royle and assistant, undated

To date I have found no pictures of the field although there are a few of the goods yeard and the railway station.

But Albany Road was recorded, and amongst the images there iare two of Mr. Enoch Royle and his wagon.  

He was a carter, and the two images show him on the stretch of Albany Road just past the junction with Brantingham Road.

What makes the two pictures of special interest are the buildings behind the wagon, one of which is the semidetached houses which are still there today and the other is the garage.

The church and hall, J Montgomery, 1968 from a lost picture postcard

And it is the garage that has always intrigued me, because I think this is on the site of what was once a church and church hall. 

There is a reference to the St Andrew’s Protestant Episcopal Evangelical Church and the Davenport Mores Hall on the corner of Albany and Brantingham.

It was run by the Rev William R. Graham D.D. and it was built sometime between 1907 and 1909, and two years later had become St Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Evangelical Church.

By then in 1911 the hall was unlisted but beside it on Albany Road sandwiched between the church and the home of Mrs Annie Kennedy was Metcalf & Higginbotham Ltd, paper merchants, which later is recorded as a “Furniture depository” and by 1950 as a garage.

All decked out, undated

All of which takes me back to the second picture of Enoch Royle which shows his wagon decked with decorations

The caption says “Decorated float in Albany Road, for Chorlton Carnival in the 1930s? Enoch Royle at the horses head, permission William Jackson.”

And I suppose that decorated float is where we will start.

According to the local historian John Lloyd, Chorlton staged a number of these carnivals during the mid-1930s which seemed usually to be centred on the Oswald Road part of new Chorlton and were part of the Rose Queen festivals which raised money for the Manchester and Salford Hospitals.

Before Albany Road, 1881

The Manchester Guardian in 1937 reported that carnival season had opened with “the gala held in St Margaret’s playing fields, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on Saturday may be said to mark the opening of the charity carnival season. 

It has a history of five or six years only, but already it has become perhaps the most considerable effort of its kind undertaken in the city on behalf of the Manchester and Salford Medical Charities Fund”. 

And beyond a field, a railway and a Rose Queen Festival, there will be more on just how Albany Road fitted in to the story of Chorlton-cum Hardy but that is it for now.

Location; Albany Road

Pictures; Albany Road, circa 1920s, Enoch Royle and his wagons, undated but circa 1930s, from the Lloyd Collection, Coal reciept, 1963, courtesy of Marjory Holmes, and the church and hall, J Montgomery, 1968, from a lost picture postcard, m80123, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass and Before Alabany Road, 1881, Withington Board of Health, courtesy of Trafford Local Studies Centre

*Application for the Erection of a 4 storey building to form 40  residential apartments, together with cycle and car parking, bin store, landscaping, and boundary treatments following demolition of existing buildings. 136878/FO/2023, Manchester City Council Planning Portal. 2023, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=RU36JOBCJDG00&activeTab=summary

The last of the unseen pictures of Chorlton-cum-Hardy

This the last of six picture postcards of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, marketed by Rapid Art Photography Company, sometime in the 1930s.

And of the six, this is the only one I have seen before.

The other five were all of familiar landmarks but taken from unusual angles, making them just that bit different.*

But this one of St Werburgh’s pretty much conforms to your standard image.

The foundation stone for the church was laid in 1899, and it opened three years later, and in the words of one of our historians was “to fulfil the spiritual needs of the people who had come to live in the new house built near Chorlton Station and Alexandra Park Station on the Fallowfield Line”.**

The full story of the church and all the other places of worship across Chorlton and West Didsbury can be found in Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples, A Synagogue And A Mosque.***

Which just leaves me to return to the choice of the six images for the picture postcards.  One was of Chorlton Park, a second was of Hough End Hall, and third looked out across Chorlton Golf course, leaving two of the River Mersey and Jackson’s Boat and this one of the church.

There is no logical theme underlying the choice, and while some fit together by virtue of their proximity to each other, St Werburgh’s sits alone.

Perhaps they were a random choice made by someone sitting in the headquarters in London or the favourites of the photographer, but what ever the reason for the selection they are different from the usual set of Chorlton images.

And that is it.  I thank Jennie Brooks for finding the six and Michael Billington for emailing them over to me.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; St Werburgh’s Church, circa 1930s, courtesy of Jennie Brooks

* Chorlton Pictures the unseen 6, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20Pictures%20the%20unseen%206

**Templar, Nora, Chorlton-cum-Hardy Fellowship of Churches, 1988, page 12

*** Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples, A Synagogue And A Mosque, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping, 2018

Lost Chorlton Churches nu 2 .......... the Macpherson Memorial Primitive Church High Lane

I just missed the Primitive Methodist Church on High Lane.

It closed  two years before I came to Manchester in 1969, and had been demolished by the time I settled in Chorlton.

Now I have been interested in the place since I discovered James McPherson who was closely involved with the church since it was founded in 1896.

“The Primitive Methodist church was early 19th century secession from the Wesleyan Methodist church and was particularly successful in evangelising agricultural and industrial communities at open meetings. 

In 1932 the Primitive Methodists joined with the Wesleyan Methodists and the United Methodists to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.”*

Mr Macpherson was an undertaker and lived next door at number 23 High Lane from 1901 and possibly earlier.

In 1894 this stretch of land was still open but it may well be that when the first church building went up in 1898 the McPherson family moved to the large ten roomed house beside the church.

Mr McPherson died in 1901 but his two daughters, Sophie and Jessie were still in the family home a decade later and show up on the census return sharing the house with three boarders.

Isabella Russell Kay was aged 80, and a widow, Mary Florence Jeffery, 35, was married and her daughter Mary Taylor Jeffrey was.  Mrs Jeffrey had married ten years but there is no indication of where her husband was on the night of the census.

Sophie died in 1912 and this may have been when her sister moved because she died five years later in Lancaster.

And that pretty much is all I know at present.

Their house is still there but only one of the church buildings survives.  This was the school built in 1896, which was enlarged in 1908 and is now the  "Manchester Centre for Buddhist Meditation."

The church stood to the left of the school and was opened in 1902, but declining numbers and the reorganisation of the Methodist Church in 1932 meant that it closed in 1967.

All that is left to do is some digginging into the rate books and directories and we may be able to pinpoint exactly when the family moved to Chorlton and when Jessie left for Lancaster.

Pictures; the Macpherson Memorial Primitive Church High Lane, circa 1920s from the Lloyd Collection and the school today from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*High Lane Primitive Methodist, Chorlton cum Hardy, http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LAN/ChorltoncumHardy/HighLanePrimitiveMethodist.shtml

Just 91 years ago in Chorlton ................

The story merited just half a page in the Manchester Guardian on Thursday October 24 1946, and nearly 70 years later, here is the story which appeared under the headline An Old Manchester Church with two very sad looking pictures of the deteriorating former parish church.

In happier days ..... 13 years earlier

“The old parish church of St Clement of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which was closed by the Bishop of Manchester in 1940.

While the Manchester Diocesan Reorganisation Committee decides what is to be the future of the site and graveyard – the new church, only five hundred yards away was consecrated in 1866 - bands of hooligans and the elements are quickly turning it into a derelict ruin.

Windows have been broken, tombstones upturned, and the floor littered with brickbats and torn matting.

Such is the sad end of this eighteenth –century redbrick church, once the centre of a small village famous for its extensive orchards, and a noted picnicking place for Manchester holiday makers.

Among the tombstones, over grown with weeds and sadly neglected is a memorial erected by the citizens of Manchester to the Lancashire Constabulary to Constable Nicholas Cock, murdered a mile or so away on August 2, 1876, by the notorious Charles Peace.”

And within three years the decision had been taken to demolish the building, much to the regret of my old friend Marjorie Holmes who had worshipped there in the years up to its closure.

She remembered with sadness the beautiful large eastern window much knocked about by the vandals after the church closed, and the rubbish left strewn across the floor.

Today, those who remember the church when it was in its full glory are few and so it is timely to bring it back out of the shadows.

The story of the church and its successor which divided Chorlton  appears in the  book about the places of worship in Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; the parish church from the south, 1933, by F. Blyth, from A Short history of Chorlton-cum-Hardy by J.D. Blyth, 1933

The Disappearing Organ Mystery ... another story by Tony Goulding

This plaque was unearthed in a garden in Chandos Road South, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester.

The dedication of a church organ to the fallen of The Great War is not unusual as the losses experienced by most communities and organisations led to myriad ways of remembering the fallen. Church organs were a popular choice as were public halls, hospitals (1) and other community amenities such as parks and sports grounds (2)

Indeed, the popular British film of 1949, “Silent Dust”, has, as a sub-plot, a wealthy blind man planning to dedicate the new cricket pavilion, he has financed, to his son believed killed in World War2. In doing so he faces estrangement from the local community who feel the dedication should be for all the young men who did not return    

The mystery, however, is in which church was the organ and how and why did it end up in someone’s garden? 

Assuming that, the plaque had been affixed to an organ in a neighbouring church there are two obvious candidates for its former home viz. St Werburgh’s Church of England, and Wilbraham St. Ninian’s United Reformed Church both of which are only a very short distance from the Chandos Road South. 

St. Ninian’s, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester,1960. 

My initial thinking was that the find was associated with “St. Ninians”, especially as the plaque’s wording suggests to me it had a non-conformist connection. Although it is slightly further away from the discovery site this church’s history provides a few possibilities. 

The present building dates from as late as 1951 leading to the possibility that the organ the plaque refers to belonged to the old church and was abandoned when the new church was opened. 

Another possibility is that the organ belonged to the Whalley Range Presbyterian Church (3) which amalgamated with the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Church after it was heavily damaged by the German Luftwaffe during Christmas Blitz of 1940.  

It could also relate to the former Wilbraham Road Congregational Church (4) which closed in July 1985. As the Presbyterian and Congregational denominations had, in 1972, integrated to form United Reformed Church, these two nearby churches combined under the new name of Wilbraham St. Ninian’s United Reformed Church.

A search of the newspaper archive on “Find My Past” for any reports of an organ at any of these churches being rebuilt in September 1921 proved fruitless.  

St. Werburgh’s Church, Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester

However, while looking through the archive I did discover a family notice from The Manchester Evening News of 29th April 1994 in which the bereaved family express their gratitude for the donations to the St Werburgh’s Organ Fund.

If this church did indeed acquire a new organ at this time, this may account for the plaque.

The timeline also seems to fit too. An organ renewed in 1921 would be over 70 years old by 1994 and probably due for renewal. 

Also, the condition of the plaque itself suggest that it has been in the ground for only a limited period. The St. Werburgh’s option being the latest would mean the plaque being buried the shortest time.

Chorlton-cum-Hardy Cricket Club’s Pavilion

I am sorry I have not been able to provide a definitive answer as to this object's origins I have “rounded-up the usual suspects” and “you pays your money and you takes your Choice”.

Notes: - 

1) Locally, Stretford Memorial Hospital on Seymour Grove was one such.

2) In 1945 the committee of Chorlton-cum-Hardy Cricket Club at the end of Hardy Lane to purchase their ground (at a cost of £3,500 in this regard.

3) This was on Upper Chorlton Road nr. Brooks Bar and is now The New Testament Church of God.

4) Located at the junction of Wilbraham Road and Withington Road. The building was sold in 1987 and converted for use as a Hindu Temple: “The Bhavan Hindu Temple”

Pictures: -

  All from the collection of Tony Goulding, except St. Ninian’s Church (1960) by A.E. Landers (m18467) courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass.

Acknowledgements: -

 Most importantly I would like to thank Mr Trefor Jones who found the plaque in his garden and agreed that I should attempt to trace its provenance.

 I have mentioned in the text my use of Find My Past’s Newspaper Archive, but I would also like to acknowledge the metropolitanchurch.org.uk website’s excellent history of the building they now worship in (--St. Ninians--) and finally that fascinating book by Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping, “Chorlton-cum-Hardy – Churches, Chapels, Temples, a Synagogue and a Mosque”

St. John’s Church – Chorlton-cum-Hardy ........ another story from Tony Goulding

This building, which is now in use as a parish centre, was the original parish church serving the Roman Catholic population of Chorlton-cum-Hardy. 

The first Mass to take place in the area since the Reformation, discounting those said “illegally” by Ambrose Barlow, the Catholic martyr, and others at Barlow Hall in the 17th and 18th centuries, was celebrated on the Saturday, 12th March, 1892. 

However, this service was held in St. Peter’s Priory which was a mission church not an established parish. 

The first celebrant was Fr. Jerome Joseph Vaughan the brother of Cardinal Herbert Vaughan the founder of St. Bede’s College, Whalley Range, Manchester. 

The first home of the priory was Woodleigh House on Edge Lane before moving to Oakley a larger property on Barlow Moor Road (close to the present-day Priory Avenue).

The Priory only had a short life-span as shortly after Fr. Jerome’s death on the 9th September, 1896 with some trouble over renewing the lease of Oakley it was decided that given the increasing size of the congregations warranted the establishment of permanent parish. 

Consequently, the diocese purchased this building on High Lane which had been Chorlton High School. In recognition that this was now a recognised parish its name was changed to St. Augustine’s with the first Sunday Mass being offered on the 9th October, 1897. The first parish priest was Fr. Frederick Holt.`

 Evidence of its former use is said to be provided by these two alcoves in the wall which were, allegedly, the church’s confessional boxes.

In the years following World War 1, with the continued growth of the congregations a new, larger church was needed. Thanks, largely, to the generous bequests of Mr. & Mrs. John Leeming (1) land on High Lane between Whitelow Road and St. Clements Road was purchased from the estate of Dr. John Rains. (2)  

This magnificent church was built on the plot and was opened with a Mass said on the 11th June, 1927. The following day (Sunday) a High Mass was sung by The Bishop of Salford, The Rt. Rev. Thomas Henshaw. Opportunity was taken at this time to rededicate the parish as Our Lady and St. John’s partly to end the confusion with the other St. Augustine’s, on York Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester (3) but also in recognition of the church’s major benefactor, John Heys Leeming. 

The move to the new church was overseen by Monsignor Joseph F. A. Kelly, parish priest (1916-1930)

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; PARISH CENTRE 2020, THE CONFESSIONAL BOXES 2015, OUR LADY AND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding, and Bishop_Thomas_Henshaw by Rex Gregorian  CC-A-SA LICENSE, DERWENT HOUSE - 67, HIGH LANE m17923, A. E. Landers 1959, ST JOHN'S PRESBYTERY FROM ST SLEMENTS ROAD, m 18179 A. E. Landers 1959, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Notes: -

1) Mr. John Heys Leeming was a very wealthy silk cloth manufacturer of Holly Bank, 5, Wellington Road, Alexandra Road South, Withington, Manchester who died on the 26th October, 1915 at Hambleton, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. His estate was assessed at £36,014 - 9s – 7d, which at today’s value amounts to £3,373, 000.

John Heys Leeming was the first-born son of John Fishwick Leeming, an oil merchant and broker, and his first wife Margaret Jane (née Wilson). He was born on the 23rd February, 1855 at Langley House, Victoria Park, Manchester and was baptised at St. Wilfrid’s Roman Catholic Church in Hulme, Manchester John Heys married Emily Mary Farrington in Manchester during the September quarter of 1889. Their union produced no children. Emily Mary died at 31, Richmond Avenue, Cleveleys, Nr. Blackpool, Lancashire on the 23rd November, 1944. One of those granted probate of her Will was Rev. Edward McGuinness M. C. who was, at that time, the Parish Priest of St. John’s, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.

2)  The property also included two substantial houses at either end of the stretch of land. Derwent House at the Whitelow Road end, and at the other end this house on St. Clement’s Road which was incorporated into the new church building as its presbytery.

3) St. Augustine's Church on York Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock was built in 1906 to replace the original church (the second oldest Catholic Church in Manchester, after “The Hidden Gem”- St. Mary’s on Mulberry Street) on Granby Row. The old church buildings being required by Manchester Corporation to provide for the new Technical Schools.

Finally, as usual, I’ve used a plethora of sources to produce this story but on this occasion, I must acknowledge two in particular. Andrew Simpson’s and Peter Topping's own “Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Churches, Chapels, Temples, a Synagogue and a Mosque” proved invaluable. Also, a website, “oldchorlton.me.uk”, created by the late Mr. Anthony Frederick Walker provided much additional background on the development of the new church prior to 1927.

Prominent Methodists of Chorlton-cum-Hardy..... another story from Tony Goulding

Founded in 1881 as “The Manchester Theological College” and renamed in 1906 in honour of Sir William Pickles Hartley, of “Hartley’s Jams” fame, who was among the church's most prominent benefactors; Hartley College was an institute for the training of ministers for the Primitive Methodist Church. 

 Hartley (Primitive Methodist) Training College,1924

Two of the college’s earliest Principals moved to addresses in Chorlton-cum-Hardy on their retirement.

Rev. James Macpherson
   
 Rev. James Macpherson was the Principal of “The Manchester Theological College” for the first eight years of its life (1881-1889).

He also edited the Primitive Methodist’s Magazine - “The Connexional” from 1871 until 1876, during which time, in 1872, he was elected President of the Primitive Methodist Conference.

He was born, in Edinburgh, in 1814.  In the September quarter of 1839, he married Fanny Bishop Buck in Weymouth, Dorset.  The couple produced five children, Christian, Archibald, Sophia, Jessie, and George. All five children were born in the North-West of England; the first three in Rochdale, Jessie near Chester and George in Haslingden, Lancashire.

The geographical range of the civil records of this family does, however, indicate the typical lifestyle of a Methodist minister who would rarely be attached to the same church/chapel for more than a couple of years. In the March quarter 1858, his wife, Fanny, died in Blackburn, Lancashire at the age of just 48. Just over three years later in the September quarter of 1861 he re-married, also in Blackburn, Mary Jane Aspinall.
     
Rev. Macpherson’s daughter, Christian, moved to live in Edinburgh, Scotland where she met Duncan Kennedy, a joiner and builder, who she married in Partick, nr. Glasgow on 13th February, 1873. Later his daughter and her husband returned to Lancashire and settled in the Cheetham area of Manchester.

Rev. Macpherson had by this time acquired a row of houses on Cluny Street, Cheetham one of which was already occupied by his son George with his wife and family. Duncan and Christian moved into an adjoining property with Rev. MacPherson appointing Duncan Kennedy as his agent for the remaining properties.
 
Shortly after the loss of his second wife, who died in South Manchester, during the March quarter of 1888, and his retirement from his post as Principal, Rev. Macpherson continued his ministry in South Manchester living initially at 30, Meadow Street, Moss Side, with his two unmarried daughters, his son and three grandchildren. He spent the final seven years of his life in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, first renting a house at 27, Albany Road from 1894 until 1896. Then in 1897 the rate book shows him as the owner occupier of 23, High Lane, a large newly-built house of 10 rooms, where at the 1901 census he was still living with his single daughters Jessie and Sophia, his widowed daughter Christian Kennedy, and his son George. Adjacent to this new property which he named “Cluny Cottage” there commenced the development of new buildings for the Primitive Methodist Church.

Macpherson Memorial (Primitive Methodist) Church 1959, High Lane

A school / church hall was built in 1896 followed by a church, with services taking place from 1898 and opened fully on the 20th September, 1902. As Rev. Macpherson had by this time passed away at his home on 18th April, 1901 the new church was given the name of “The Macpherson Memorial”
    As of 1900 the Manchester rate books show Rev. Macpherson’s Cluny Street properties alone providing an approximate rental income of upwards of £350. Given this large income his naming of his family home “Cluny Cottage” and the new church being named after him it is perhaps, not too conjectural to conclude that both “Cluny Cottage” and adjacent Primitive Methodist structures were all financed from the Cheetham property portfolio. What can be said for definite is that, in December, 1902, the final sworn assessment of his estate, for probate purposes, was £8,214-1s-0d or just over £1,000,000 at today’s value.

Rev. William Jones Davies
   
Rev. William Jones Davies was for five years from 1908 until 1913 the principal of the renamed Hartley College on Alexandra Road, Whalley Range, Manchester.
Rev. Davies was born in 1851 in Lydham, on the Shropshire/Montgomeryshire, England/Wales border. His parents were Edward, a farmer and Martha (née Jones). William’s younger brother, Edward Robinson, was also a Primitive Methodist minister. Rev. Davies married Emily Jane Bradford in the June quarter of 1883 while he was stationed at Cradley Heath, South Staffordshire.

The couple had seven children including one set of twins, George Denis and Mary Christine, born in the September quarter of 1888 in the Clun district of Shropshire. Sadly, Mary Christine was to die tragically young at just 12 years old while Rev. Davies was serving as a minister in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Of his other children; one of his remaining daughters, Dorothy Llewella, became a student at Manchester University and he would have witnessed her degree ceremony at the University’s Whitworth Hall on 3rd July, 1915 when she was awarded an Honours Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Class 2:1) in History. His first born, William Claud Howard, followed him into the Primitive Methodist ministry who after his father’s death in 1916 left the Primitive Methodist Church and later became a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
       In retirement, Rev. William Jones Davies lived at 6, Oak Avenue, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, where he died on the 21st June, 1916.

6 Oak Avenue, 2020

Rev John Bedford
Rev. John Bedford, a one-time President of the Wesleyan Conference (1868-69), passed away in the early hours of the 20th November, 1879 at his home, 18, Whitelow Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
    He was born on 27th July, 1810 in Wakefield, Yorkshire (West Riding). His father, also named John, died when he was only five years old. After initially working in a solicitor’s office, in Leeds, he became a full-time minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Glasgow, Scotland in 1831. Shortly after becoming a minister he met Maria Gledhill who he married in 1835 and with whom he had two surviving sons William Henry born in Bolton, Lancashire in the December quarter of 1842 and Frederick Samuel who was born in Birmingham in the December quarter of 1850.
     From, 1860 his increasing rôle in the administrative affairs of the Wesleyan conference necessitated his permanent residence in the Manchester area. In this year, 1860, he was appointed to the general chapel committee and soon rose to the position of being its secretary. At the church’s conference in Bristol in 1867, Rev. Bedford was elected to serve as its President for the following year.
Rev. Bedford first settled in the Chorlton-on-Medlock district of Manchester, where he resided for over a decade at 18, Acomb Street before around the time of his semi-retirement from his Secretarial work for the “Conference” he made the move to Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
According to the rate books of the Chorlton-cum-Hardy township this was, from the 6th September, 1872, at Wilton Street, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where a near neighbour was a young Church of England clergyman; Rev. Hugh Bethell Jones. Somewhat unusually for that time there is some evidence that the two men were on very friendly terms. When in March, 1876 a subscription was raised to present Rev. Bethell Jones with a gift to mark his departure from St. Clement’s, on his appointment to the rectorship of St John the Devine’s, Brooklands, Cheshire, Rev. Bedford contributed one guinea to the collection. Although he was too indisposed to attend the presentation to his fellow cleric at the National School on Chorlton Green on 23rd March, 1876 he did send a very glowing testimonial which was read out at the ceremony and transcribed in the report of the event in the “Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser” on the 25th March, 1876.
 

40 Whitelow Road, 2020

Although Rev. Bedford died in 1879, his widow, Maria, and son, Frederick Samuel, continued to live on Whitelow Road. Maria died in the December quarter of 1888. Frederick Samuel and his family continued to live on Whitelow Road, however, and at some stage they had moved to number 40 (Although this was possibly due to the houses on Whitelow Road being re-numbered following a new housing development). Even after Frederick Samuel passed away in the March quarter of 1909 his widow Mary Jane remained in the house; she was still recorded living at 40, Whitelow Road in Kelly’s 1933 Directory of Lancashire, Manchester, Salford & Suburbs. In the meantime, two of Rev. Bedford’s grand-daughters Nellie, in 1921, and Ethel Mary in 1922, had held their weddings in the Methodist Church on Manchester Road. Throughout the First World War, Ethel Mary had served as a volunteer of the British Red Cross and in the kitchens and later as a nurse in two of the Red Cross Hospitals in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. One was at a building she would have been very familiar with; the Manchester Road Methodist Sunday School. The other was the Baptist’s Sunday School on Wilbraham Road.
Location; Chorlton

Pictures; Hartley (Primitive Methodist) Training College (1924)
 m 68658 (Unknown), Macpherson Memorial (Primitive Methodist) Church 1959, High Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, m 17904 A.E.Landers, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass
 6, Oak Avenue, 2020, 40, Whitelow Road 2020

Tony Goulding, © 2020

Sources
 I would like to acknowledge a good  source of data "My Primitive Methodists" website
 E-mail address:-  enquiries@englesbrook.org.uk            

St. Clement’s” Holcombe” Incumbents ..... another story from Tony Goulding

This is one of those curious coincidences which can sometimes be uncovered in the records. 

St Clements old church, circa, 1920

Both the rectors who administered to the congregation of St. Clements, Chorlton-cum-Hardy during the First World War were born in the small village of Holcombe (1) near Bury, Lancashire.
 
Rev. James Swinburne Bateson, who served in that post from 1911 until 1915, was succeeded by Rev. John Harry Thorpe Renshaw who remained in office until 1928.

Rev. James Swinburne Bateson
 
Rev. Bateson was born on 20th July, 1860 and christened in Holcombe parish church (Emmanuel) on 20th October of that year. His parents were Richard Bateson, a cotton manufacturer employing 102 hands, and his wife Betsey (née Swinburne). After studying classics at Queens College, Oxford and graduating with an M.A. on 1st July, 1886 Rev. Bateson took Holy Orders.  His initial role was as an itinerant preacher and assistant secretary to the various Diocesan Societies.
 
In June 1891 he was appointed the Rector of St. Marks, (2) Cheetham, a post he remained in until taking up the rectorship of St.Clement’s, Chorlton- cum-Hardy in 1911. In this same year of 1911 Rev. Bateson married a Miss Fanny Wilson at St. Paul’s Church, Kersal, Salford during the September quarter.
   

St Mark's, 1890

During his tenure at St. Mark’s he for a time was living with his father,(by then retired),mother and his unmarried elder sister Susannah Ellen at St Mark’s rectory, 100, George Street, Broughton, Salford. (at 1901 census). His father died there on 25th September, 1902 leaving £7,720-13s-6d.
   
Rev. Bateson left Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the summer of 1915. There is a gap in the available records until 1917 when they indicate that he became vicar of the village of Shurdington near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire where he died on 21st February, 1921. He left the sum of £9,070-2s-2d to his widow, Fanny who in turn died in Bournemouth in 1947. His widow in her will left £34,095 including bequests of £500 to both St. Mark’s, Cheetham Hill and St. Clement’s, Chorlton-cum-Hardy in memory of her late husband’s time there.

Rev. John Harry Thorpe Renshaw

Rev Renshaw was born in Holcombe on 10th February, 1874. His parents were James, a    draper, and his wife; Eliza (née Wood).The 1881 census shows the family living at Ash Mount, Tottington Lower End, Bury. The family comprised of two sons (John and his brother Charles E. (3) and three daughters (Evelyn M., Gertrude J., and Amy B.)
   
By the time of the 1901 census he had taken holy orders, being ordained in 1897, and was an assistant curate at Christ Church, Heaton Norris, Stockport, Cheshire. In 1904, as reported in The Norfolk Chronicle’s “Ecclesiastical Intelligence” column on 12th March he was combining his parish duties with a new role as an assistant diocesan inspector of schools. (appointed October, 1903) (4)

Increasing responsibilities in this role meant he was less involved in parish work and was for a number of years unattached to a particular church and acted as a travelling minister/preacher. On 20th August, 1910 The Rochdale Observer reported that Rev. Renshaw had been appointed to the post of Diocesan Inspector of Schools for the new Archdeaconry of Rochdale.
     

St Clement's new church, 1959

Just prior to his move to Chorlton-cum-Hardy at the 1911 census the prospective rector of St. Clements was living at 89, Hulton Street, Moss Side, Manchester boarding with watchmaker William Henry Kilner and family.

     
After serving as the Rector of Chorlton-cum-Hardy for more than 12 years Rev. Renshaw was offered and accepted the living at the quaintly named Lincolnshire village of Mareham-le-Fen Nr. Horncastle as reported in “The Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian” on 31st March, 1928. One of his last acts before moving to Lincolnshire was to marry Edith (née Taylor) at St Clement’s.
 
Rev. Renshaw eventually retired to the North Wales coast where he died on 16th October, 1961 at 53, Brompton Avenue, Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire. He left £7898-13s to his widow, Edith who later died on 10th February, 1974 at “Westella” 17A, Llandudno Road, Rhos-on-Sea, Denbighshire leaving £38,457.

© Tony Goulding, 2020

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Pictures; St.Clements old church, A. H. Clarke, cc 1920, m 70277, St. Marks C.d. Robinson 1890, m70786, St. Clements new church A E Landers 1959, m17813, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

NOTES:
1) Holcombe made headline news on 25th September, 1916 when it was subjected to one of the first air bombings over British soil when it was bombed by Zeppelin LZ61.
2) During his incumbency of St. Mark’s Rev. Bateson supervised the construction of the parish’s new primary school by the Manchester based architects Waddington son and Dunkerly who also worked on Manchester Royal Infirmary and Northcliffe house the “Daily Mail” building on Deansgate, Manchester.
3) Charles E. was also to take holy orders and become a long time vicar of Birtle, nr Rochdale, Lancashire.
4) As reported in the 28th October, 1903 edition of “the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser”

Lost Chorlton Churches nu 1 .............. St Clement's

An occasional series devoted to those Chorlton Churches which have gone.

Now the first has to be St Clement's for while there is a church with that name  on Edge Lane this was not the first.

The original was a wood and plaster chapel on the green which dated from the early 16th century and was replaced by a brick one on the same site at the beginning of the 19th century.

It closed in 1940 and was demolished in 1949.


Picture; St Clement's circa 1860 from the collection of Tony Walker

The new book on the history of Chorlton ........ Places of worship and their stories

Now, you do not have to be religious to acknowledge the importance of religious buildings in a community.

Not only do they afford a spiritual need for some, but they reach out to the community in many different ways, while for me, they are a rich source of historical stories.

Those stories can tell us so much about how Chorlton has changed.

And that was the starting point for the new book, Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples A Synagogue and a Mosque.*

My starting point has always been those buried in the parish church on the green, but equally fascinating are the efforts of the Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalist to establish their own places of worship and more recently the creation of the Hindu temple on Wilbraham Road, as well as the Buddhist centres.

Sitting beside these Chorlton places of worship are the synagogue and mosque just over the border in West Didsbury.

The old parish church 1908

But the stories were only part of the reason why Peter and I began the book.

For him, it was the architecture of the buildings and the way that they have grown and adapted over the last century and a bit.

And that gave him the scope to produce some stunning paintings of each of the buildings, accompanied with some fine colour photographs of the interior of each of them, and a collection of period black and white images stretching back into the 19th century.

The Synagogue, West Didsbury

At this point I was tempted to tell a story, but was reminded by Peter that the stories are in the book, which is out today and can be bought from Chorlton Bookshop or from us.

It is the sixth book we have produced together, and like the others has been designed to be read by the fire, or as a series of five walks, stretching out across Chorlton and into Didsbury.

The first of those walks will be in the new year, giving everyone time to buy and read it, and join us for the book launch in Chorlton Library on December 3rd from 7.30 pm.

The house on Oswald Road

But I can’t quite resist leaving you with the start of the story of the building on Oswald Road, tucked away beside two large houses, down a path which in summer is half hidden by bushes and trees, and which was variously a warehouse, a church and is now a family home.

Now, that is all I am going to say, other than that, one of our proof readers commented that “here was a book which celebrated the diversity of where we live and explored its rich history".

And that seems a good point to close.

Location; Chorlton & Didsbury

You can obtain your copy  from us at http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/ or Chorlton Book shop, 506 Wilbraham Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9AW 0161 881 6374

*A new book on the places of worship in Chorlton-cum Hardy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20new%20book%20on%20the%20places%20of%20worship%20in%20Chorlton-cum-Hardy

The gem on Wellington Avenue in Whalley Range and a story revealed

I bet plenty of people will have passed this corrugated iron shed without giving it a second glance or even a thought.

The garage Mission Hall, 2015

But this slightly shabby and rusting building has a history which goes back way beyond its time as a garage.

In 1899 at “a meeting held in the Hall, Wellington Avenue, Clarendon Road, it was decided to start a Sunday School and to hold Evening Service in the Hall, in the building which was to be erected on Withington Road at the corner with Wilbraham Road.  

This building  was opened in 1901, the church being formally constituted in 1902”.*

That church was the Wilbraham Road Congregational Church which served its congregation until 1985 when it was sold, and became the Gita Bhavan Hindu Temple, which is still there today.

Wilbraham Road Congregational Church,  1901

Now the story of its transformation into a Hindu Temple will be part of our new book on Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples and Mosques - Past and Present, which will be due out at the end of the year.**

And contained in the story of the Temple will be a nod to the building’s earlier history as a Congregational Church, suffice to say in October 1972 the congregation joined with the Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church and thirteen years later  combined with St. Ninian's to become Wilbraham St. Ninian's.

Wilbraham Congregational Church, 1961

But for now it is that corrugated iron shed which offers up a story.

I can’t yet date its construction but it will be between 1894 and 1899.

In 1894 Wellington Avenue had not yet been cut and by 1899 we know that building was being used by the Alexandra Park Congregational Church.

If the hall had a name back then, I have yet to discover it, but by 1903 it appears as the St Margaret’s Mission Room which by 1911 had become St Margaret’s Mission Church Sunday Schools.

Wilbraham Congregational Church, 1961

The good news is that the records of the church from 1899, through to 1985 are in the archive at Central Ref which will in time offer up many of the answers.

And these will include when the Wellington Avenue building was finally sold and it became a workshop.

All of which just leaves me to make an appeal for information, stories, pictures or anecdotes on any of Chorlton's places of worship.

You can leave a comment on the blog or message me or Peter Topping using facebook or twitter.

Pictures; Wellington Avenue Garage, formerly St Margaret’s Mission Room, 2015, from the collection of Peter Topping,  Wilbraham Road Congregational Church, 1901, Norah Templar, and in 1961, A E Landers, m409957, m40996, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass


*Mr Eric Morgan, Wilbraham Road Congregational Church, Chorlton Fellowship of Churches, 1988, page 19

** Chorlton-cum-Hardy Churches, Chapels, Temples and Mosques - Past and Present, Andrew Simpson & Peter Topping

*** Wilbraham Road United Reform Church, Chorlton-cum- Hardy, Archives, Archives & Local History Library, Central Ref, Reference number, M543

At Central Church with a community project and a thank you to the artist Tracey Cartledge

Anyone who knows the Central Church on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Zetland Road will have spotted the large stained glass window created by Stephen Raw.

And now there is the impressive community mosaic which has taken the place of the entrance beside that big window.

I spotted the notice asking people to get involved on a Facebook site.

It was posted by the artist Tracey Cartledge who runs a mosaic evening class for adults in the church hall on Thursday evenings, which has been running since January 2011.

The church committee commissioned Tracey to design, make and install the mosaic, involving the people of Chorlton in the process.

Advanced students from the evening class worked with Tracey to host seven community workshops.

One student, Karen Nolan, assisted for two weeks in the studio and Andy Carroll & Son Tilers (who also attend the classes) worked with Tracey on site for the installation.

At which point rather than attempt to write about Tracey’s work I shall just leave you to follow the link to her site where there is plenty of information on what she does and those classes she runs.*

Which just leaves me to reflect on the building itself.

And for those who have been around the block a few times this will always be the Macfadyn Church.

Today only the hall remains, the church having been demolished in the 1970s.

It was one of the many churches built in the township as the population grew in the final decades of the 19th century and like those on High Lane and Wilbraham Road did not quite last a century before declining congregations  made amalgamations, rationalizations and eventual demolition the fate of many church groups in Chorlton.

“The Chorlton cum Hardy Congregational church started its life in the Masonic Hall in September 1879 under the joint control of the Chorlton Road and Stretford churches. In June 1881 Chorlton Road, under Rev. J. A. Macfadyen, M.A., D.D., assumed full responsibility. 

A school-chapel was opened for worship in September 1883 and forty seven members enrolled at the new church in December. 


Its first pastor, Rev. Robert Mitchell, was appointed in June 1885. With the death of Dr. Macfadyen, in 1889, the church's connection with Chorlton Rd. came to an end, but in October 1890 a fund was started to build a new church in memory of Dr. Macfadyen, - the Macfadyen Memorial Church, whose opening service was on 25 October 1894.

In October 1972 with the union of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches it became known as Macfadyen United Reformed Church. In October 1975 Macfadyen United Reformed Church and McLaren Baptist Church decided to worship and work together as Chorlton Central Church.”**

All of which just leaves me to add that the mosiac was unveiled by Jeff Smith MP on October 16 to mark Revd Bob Day's retirement.

The accompanying plaque records that it was "designed and made by Tracey Cartledge in collaboration with the people of Chorlton."

And Tracey tells me "that nearly a 100 people form the neighbourhood attended the workshop and helped make the mosiac.*


And that  is just where we started.

Location, Chorlton








Picture; the finished mosaic, 2016, photo by Ian Brewerton (CCC); celebrating the finished community mosaic, 2016, photo by Ian Brewerton (CCC); the church committee visiting the studio, 2016, photo by Ian Brewerton (CCC) and installing the mosaic 2016, photo by Bob Day (CCC)



Tracey Cartledge, http://www.traceycartledge.co.uk/products/208

** *The National Archives, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=127-m186&cid=0#0