Places of Worship [leisure trust, arts heritage, sports centres, fitness health, rochdale, link4life, entertainment, Rochdale Boroughwide Cultural Trust, museum, middleton arena, gallery, touchstones, local studies, central, bowlee, springhill, marland, heywood, littleborough,]
St Chad's, Rochdale, prior to the alterations of the late 1870's.
Rochdale Parish Church (c.1840)
Bagslate UMFC Chapel and Sunday School (c.1905)
St Clement's Church, Rochdale (c.1910)
St Edmund's Church, Rochdale (c.1875)
St Mary's the Baum, Rochdale (c.1980)
St Stephen's Church, Countess of Huntingdon Connexion (c.1910)
Blackwater St Chapel (Unitarian) erected 1857
Drawing of Clover St Chapel as it is reputed to have looked in 1818.
Amen Corner (print) (1769)
Amen Corner, Rochdale (c.1890)
The first St John's R.C. Church, Ann Street (c.1890)
St John's Roman Catholic Church, Rochdale (c.1930)
Baillie St Methodist Chapel (c.1920)
Providence Congregational Chapel.High St, Rochdale (c.1910)
Christ Church, Healey (c.1910)
All Saints' Parish Church, Hamer (c.1910)
St Aiden's, Sudden. Original Edgar Wood designed church. c 1900
Syke Methodist Chapel (c.1910)
Greenbank Wesleyan Chapel (c.1910)
Bamford Methodist Free Church (1902)
St Chad's sextant (grave digger) (c.1865)
Castleton Congregationalist Church.Morris Dancers (1912)
St Mary's the Baum, original church building (c.1910)
Lowerplace Methodists' Choir Trip (c.1905)
Friends' Meeting House, (Quakers) George St, Rochdale (c.1900)
Castlemere United Methodist Free Church. 10th August 1904
Bamford Chapel (United Reform) (c.1970)
St Luke's, Deeplish, Rochdale (c.1970)
Salvation Army Citadel, Rochdale (c.1970)
General William Booth visiting Rochdale in August 1906
Whit Walks, Castleton Moor Methodists (c.1925)
Blackwater St Chapel in 1717, with the Schoolhouse on the left & the parsonage on the right.
Castleton Wesleyan Chapel, Manchester Rd. (c.1910)
Trinity Methodist Whit Walks c 1890. Walking up King's Road, at the side of the White Lion Inn.
Golden Mosque (original building) (1975)
Sparrow Hill Sunday School (c.1910)
Whit Walks, Rochdale Town Centre. c 1955
Whit Walks, Drake St., Rochdale c 1900
Whit Walks, St. Aiden's, Sudden, Rochdale. c 1925
Church, Chapel, Meeting House & Mosque – Religion in Rochdale.
Churches, Chapels & Meeting Houses.
It is thought that there has been a church in Rochdale since Saxon times, although no physical remains were ever found of such a building. The earliest written reference to a Vicar is for Geoffrey the Elder of Whalley, in 1194. Fragments of Norman ‘dog-tooth’ decorated stone were found in 1816, when St Chad’s, the Parish Church, was altered, suggesting the earlier presence of a Norman building.
For many centuries the Parish Church, dedicated to St Chad, the Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Lichfield in 673, was Rochdale’s only Church, and Rochdale was one of the largest Parishes in the country. It included the Chapelry of Saddleworth and stretched as far as Todmorden. In order to make it easier for parishioners to attend church for worship on a regular basis, ‘Chapels of Ease’ were established at Littleborough, Milnrow, Todmorden & Whitworth.
Before the Reformation, of course, the Church was Roman Catholic. The Church of England was established by Henry VIII, who set himself up as head of the Church when he broke with Rome in order to divorce his wife Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Following the Reformation the transition to Protestantism in its various forms was a sometimes rocky road. Rebe P. Taylor describes the effects on Rochdale in her book ‘Rochdale Retrospect,’ as follows:
'After the dissolution of Whalley Abbey the patronage of the Rochdale Parish Church and its chapels came to Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in 1550 leased the rectorial rights and revenues to Sir John Byron for 21 years. (Except for a few years, they continued to he re-leased to the Byron family until the 18th century).
The alternate Protestant and Roman Catholic reigns which followed that of Henry VIII meant much suffering for the clergy. Cranmer himself was burnt at the stake in 1556. In 1559 his friend Matthew Parker was made the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Elizabeth’s long reign restored the Protestant religion but discouraged both the recusant Roman Catholics and the “Advanced Protestants” or Puritans.
In such circumstances it is not surprising that of the 16th century Rochdale vicars who were inducted after Gilbert Haydock between 1554 and 1606, three were deprived of the living and one, Richard Midgeley, resigned in 1595 after 34 years as the vicar, probably because of his Puritanical views and his refusal to wear the surplice: a contemporary writer described him as: “discreet, sober, and very peaceable, the only first planter of sound religion in this corner of our country in her majesty’s time . . and had at his monthly communions above 800 communicants . “
At about the time of, or a little earlier than his induction, the church was partly rebuilt and the present clerestory added. St. Chad’s registers began in 1582, with 137 christenings (including one entry of twins), 81 burials and 42 weddings in the first complete year from January to December. Midgeley was a strong supporter of the Grammar School; probably at some time after 1594 he married Grace Ashton, sister-in-law of the first head-master.
There were five 17th century Vicars of Rochdale. Joseph Midgeley even more of a Puritan than his father, was deprived of the living in 1607. He was followed first by Richard Kenyon, and then by Henry Tilson.
In 1646 Robert Bath joined the 2nd Presbyterian Classis, or Assembly, at Bury—Edward Butterworth was another member. By the 1662 Act of Uniformity all Church ministers were required to be of Episcopal ordination, and, after some 25 years as Vicar, Bath was deprived of the Rochdale living but continued to preach to Dissenters at a small house in Deeplish, Castleton, although, amongst other severe Acts, the Conventicle Act prohibited meetings of more than five Dissenters (other than a family) on penalty of fines, imprisonment or transportation to the American colonies.
For the next sixty years the Episcopalian Henry Pigot was a somewhat whimsical vicar, described in his old age as a little man “ of a spare habit, very pale, wearing a plaided silk cap, with long white hair, and very fond of music and fishing.” It was he who sent an invitation to an Oldham choir who came by cart to St. Chad’s and were afterwards entertained at the Royal Oak (probably near the Church stile—a Royal Oak inn near there was closed down in 1901).
It was after the 1672 Act of Toleration that Robert Bath took out a preaching licence. There were now several vigorous groups of Dissenters within the Parish. In 1650 there had been “ very foul riots “ within a town suffering from the effects of plague and the War; in 1663 a threatened rising of Anabaptists, Independents and Presbyterians was reported to Robert Holt of Castleton, then Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire. An early group of Quakers existed in Todmorden even before the Restoration, including, notably, John Fielden, who, during some twenty years, was frequently imprisoned and fined.
For thirty years, between the 60’s and the 90’s, Oliver Heywood came over the border to preach to Dissenters in Lancashire; he often stayed with Matthew Hallows and preached at his house, also at Chadwick Hall, and once in 1683 he was nearly arrested while staying with John Halliwell. The house of Matthew Hallows (or Hollis) was registered as a Dissenters’ meeting-place in 1689.
Bishop Gastrell observed in 171 7 that there were no Papists in Rochdale but that there were about 200 Dissenters. In the same year the Presbyterian Chapel in Blackwater Street was built on a plot of ground known as Colepitt Garden: it later became the Unitarian Chapel and was rebuilt in I856.
Methodism was probably introduced in Rochdale in about I 746:John Wesley did not visit the town until I 749. following after the Scotch- man. William Darney, John Bennet of Derbyshire and Charles Wesley. The immaculate John Wesley, with his long silky hair, was first greeted in the streets with ‘‘shouting, cursing, blaspheming and gnashing of teeth” but, as he wrote himself, ‘‘the word of God prevailed ... and there was a very remarkable change in the behaviour of the people.’’. their . . . hearts At a time when the then genteel Church of England clergy seemed withdrawn from the masses of the people, Wesley preached the practical application of New Testament doctrines to Lancashire spinners and weavers who were distressed and bewildered by the inventive spirit of their age. One of his most famous sayings was “ Do all the good you can, in every place you can, to all the people you can.” Bankhouse, Norden, on Hunger Hill, still keeps the stairs and rail from which John Wesley preached to the flourishing society there; his high-backed oak chair from Hartley Hall was lately given to the Champness Hall; he preached at the first Methodist Chapel to be built, at Toad Lane, in 1770, and his last visit to Rochdale was in 1790, when, at the age of 87, he walked up the Church Steps and counted them (there are now 122). A Chapel at Union Street in 1793 replaced the one at Toad Lane and was itself supplanted in 1825 by the present building, which is not now used as a chapel.
The Baptists first held services in Rochdale during 1772; in the following year nine people were baptised in the Roch, near the Orchard, by the former woollen apprentice and “ card setter” John Hirst, who was born in Blackwater Street. As there were irreverent rumours that Mr. Hirst had received five shillings for each immersion, those who had been baptised signed a testimonial afterwards, against this report. The first meeting-place is said to have been in a room at the Bull Inn, at the bottom of Yorkshire Street. In 1775 a chapel was built at Town Meadows, and was replaced in 1833 by the West Street Baptist Chapel.
In 1708 the house of Robert Kershaw, in Butterworth, was registered as a Quaker meeting-place; the house of a John Lees was similarly registered in 1765, and the Rochdale Quakers also met at Turf Lane, near Royton until 1808, and afterwards at the George Street Meeting-house.
According to the Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, published in 1885, the Reverend Rowland Broomhead was in 1791 licensed to perform services in certain towns which included Rochdale; from about 1815, Mass was celebrated in a warehouse in Clegg Street (behind John Street). In the same year as the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, 1829, St. John’s Church, Ann Street, was built; Father Turner, afterwards Bishop of Salford, was then the Rochdale priest. For the first time since the Popish Plot of 1678, Roman Catholics were eligible as Members of Parliament.”
As the town grew in size so did the various congregations of both church and chapel. St Mary’s Church (Wardleworth) was built by public subscription and first used for worship in November 1742. It has since been re-built. St Mary’s became known locally as the Baum Chapel, or St. Mary’s the Baum. This may have been because balm or wild mint grew nearby, although there is also a legend that the ghost of a white rabbit, known as ‘the Baum Rabbit,’ haunted the district. In addition, all of the old Chapels of Ease pertaining to the Parish of Rochdale, at Littleborough, Milnrow, Todmorden and Whitworth, had been re-built at least once or twice before the 19th century.
By 1815 the Parish Church, St. Chad’s, was in a ruinous condition and many parishioners wanted to build a completely new church. However, the Vicar at the time, Dr. Drake, opposed this idea and eventually St James’s Wardleworth was built as a Chapel of Ease. During the restoration work on St Chad’s, services were held for a time in the old Grammar School on Church Lane. Further changes and additions were made to St Chad’s throughout the 19th century, including, in the early 1870’s, the tower being heightened (losing its clock in the process), the chancel extended and the porch replaced.
St Chad's had a graveyard of course; however after 1855 when Rochdale Cemetery was opened, there were no new graves in either the old churchyard or the 'New Burial Ground' on Drake Street. The services of the sextant, or grave digger, were still required by people who had 'family graves' that could be re-opened. The photograph shows St Chad's sextant in around 1865.
Blackwater Street Chapel.
As stated previously this chapel was built on a plot of ground called Colepitt Garden. The land was given by John Smethurst in 1717. In October 1717 the chapel was registered as “a meeting place for an assembly of Protestants dissenting from the Church of England.” (Fishwick, 1889). There was, however, a meeting house in Rochdale much earlier, in 1672. It is believed that it was in a house at Lower Gates, and that it was known, derisively, as ‘Amen Corner.’ Celia Fiennes, writing in around 1695, spoke of “a good large meeting place well filled.” The Blackwater Street Chapel, originally Presbyterian, eventually became a Unitarian Meeting House. Presbyterians were followers of the Calvinistic teachings of John Knox. Unitarianism developed from Presbyterianism in the 17th century; their churches were run by the congregation.
Early Methodism.
Methodists were followers of John Wesley; they had seceded from the Church of England and eventually formed two sects: the Wesleyans and the Primitive Methodists. Later on they united to form the United Methodist Free Church.
In 1770 a Methodist Chapel was built in Toad Lane, and on 29th April that year, John Wesley preached there. Fishwick tells us that Wesley wrote in his diary that he had preached at “the new preaching house at Rochdale.” In 1793 the Chapel was sold – to be used as a theatre; it was demolished in 1865 and the Central Co-operative Store was built on the site.
A chapel was opened in Union Street on 23rd May 1793. The building was in use until 1825, when it was demolished and a new chapel was built in its place. Many other chapels were built throughout the town, one of the largest being Baillie Street Chapel which opened in 1837. There were chapels at, Bagslate, Broad Lane, Castlemere, Durham Street, Hamer, Healey Stones, Lowerfold, Lowerplace, Newbold, Penn Street, Smallbridge and Smith Street, to name just a few.
Baptists.
Fishwick (1889) records that on 13th October, 1773, nine people were baptised in the River Roch , near the Orchard. The house called the Orchard stood in the area where the Memorial Gardens are today; the river can no longer be seen as it is beneath the road. We know the names of the nine because John Hirst, who carried out the baptisms, was accused of charging 5shillings per baptism. The nine new ‘Baptists’ signed a testimonial to set the rumour aside. They were: Grace Butterworth, John Kershaw, James Law, Benjamin Whitehead, Abraham Broadbent, John Gartside, John Shaw, Susan Rhodes and Susan Ogden.
Baptists believe in adult baptism as opposed to infant baptism – the baptisms usually involve total immersion in water.
The Baptist’s first meeting room in Rochdale was in the Bull Inn at the bottom of Yorkshire Street. In 1775 they built a chapel on a plot of land at Town Meadows.; it measured 14 yards by twelve yards and cost £400 to build. Worship continued here until 1833 when the chapel in West Street was built.
Hope Chapel, built in 1810, served the needs of a group of Baptists who seceded from the chapel at Town Meadows; they called themselves ‘Particular Baptists.’
The Society of Friends (Quakers).
The earliest records of Quakers in the Parish of Rochdale place the majority in the Todmorden area – from whence they were summonsed for failure to pay the Church Rate. The Church Rate was to continue to be contentious to Quakers, including John Bright in the 19th century. Other groups also opposed the Church Rate, of course, but the Quakers, especially John Bright, were perhaps its most vociferous opponents.
Early Quakers, following the lead of George Fox, were quite radical in their beliefs and actions, rejecting many of the tenets of the established church – for example, clerical hierarchy, elaborate rituals and liturgy and the formal links with the crown. The ‘Friends’ wanted a much simpler meeting with no set prayers; instead there was (and remains) an emphasis of the individual spirituality of each person. Their beliefs led to what amounted to persecution in the early years. Not only could they be fined for refusing to pay the Church Rates, there are records of gaol sentences being imposed for refusal to attend services in the established church. This happened to John Fielden of Todmorden.
By 1808 members of the Society of Friends living in Rochdale had a Meeting House in George Street. Earlier they had met at Royton. In 1813 there were 93 ‘Friends,’ or Quakers meeting at the Rochdale Meeting House, including the Bright family. John Bright, of course, was buried in their graveyard.
St Stephen’s Church (Lady Huntingdon’s Connexion).
St Stephen’s Church on Ball Street was opened on 12th January 1812. Its congregation followed the precepts of the ‘Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.’
Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon was a staunch and evangelical Anglican. During her lifetime she built a number of chapels (on her own lands) and appointed Chaplains whose preaching she favoured. Eventually, in 1779, the Church deemed that her chapels were irregular, and decreed that they should be taken into the control of their individual parishes – and thus the preachers would no longer have the autonomy to be evangelical in quite the same way. As a result, the Countess of Huntingdon used the ‘Toleration Act’ to declare her chapels and their chaplains ‘independent’ and they were subsequently registered as ‘dissenters’ in 1881. They proved to be a Calvinistic movement within the Methodist Church, and became known as ‘the Countess of Huntingdon Connexion,’ or sometimes as ‘English Calvinistic Methodists.’
Many of these chapels eventually merged with the Congregationalist Church. Congregationalists believed that their churches should be controlled by their individual congregations.
The Roman Catholic Church.
Rochdale’s first Roman Catholic Church (dedicated to St John the Baptist) stood on Ann Street. It was built in 1829 and opened in 1830. Before it was built, Catholics had met for Mass in a room above the ‘Hark up to Glory Hotel’ in St. Mary’s Gate. Later they met in a room behind a woollen warehouse in Clegg Street, behind John Street. The church on Ann Street was about 100 feet long and seated around 500 people. The illustration shows the church to the right, with the old school room (added later) on the left. In 1851 a Religious Census was held; it showed an average attendance at Morning Mass of 300 people, with a further 100 attending the afternoon service.
For many years there were plans to build a new church. Canon Henry Chipp had arrived at the old church in 1897 and was determined to build a new church. Plans were drawn before World War 1, but the foundation stone was not laid until 28th July 1923 - when the Bishop of Salford, Dr. Casartelli officiated. The new church was designed in the Byzantine style and based on the Santa Sophia in Constantinople. The architect was Mr. E Bower Norris of Manchester. The church was opened on 14th June 1925 by Cardinal Bourne, Bishop of Westminster, although it was not consecrated until 1930, when all building debts had been paid off.
Other Catholic churches in the town include St Patrick, on the corner of Watt Street & Elliott Street, built in 1861 to supplement St. John’s. Sacred Heart is on Kingsway, St Gabriel’s & the Angels is in Castleton, St Hugh’s of Lincoln in Bamford & St Vincent de Paul is in Norden.
Salvation Army.
On 12th March 1882 the Salvation Army arrived in Rochdale to ‘do battle’ for the souls of Rochdalians. It was not their first attempt at converting the town; earlier attempts had been made in 1878 -79. The 1882 ‘attack’ however, was to establish a permanent presence in Rochdale.
The first open air meeting of the ‘campaign’ was held in the Town Hall Square on 12th march 1882, when a crowd of 10,000 were addressed. At that time the headquarters was set up in the old skating rink at Castlemere. An Anniversary Celebration pamphlet of 1906 tells us that the old skating rink was “packed night after night, (and) large numbers of the biggest drunkards and wife-beaters were converted to God.”
In 1892 a new Citadel was opened in Lord Street (see photograph) where it was surrounded by lodging houses and public houses. The cost of the ground and old buildings was £1,000, whilst the cost of building & furnishing the new Citadel was £4,969 15s 7d. General William Booth visited the town in the same year.
In 1911 a shelter for the homeless was opened in Mill Street. This was an important area of the Army’s work, and in 1967 Providence House was opened – a new hostel for the homeless.
The old Citadel on Lord Street was demolished in 1989, and until the new Citadel opened in 1993, the Army had a temporary home at the Champness Hall. The new Citadel, costing £750,000 is on Newgate.
Visit of General Booth to Rochdale.
The photograph shows General Booth on one of his visits to Rochdale. On this occasion it was as part of a tour of the country, when he arrived in Rochdale on Monday, 13th August, 1906. At that time he was 77years old. He was on a motor tour of the country that started in Inverness on 28th July 1906, and was due to end at Plymouth later in August. From Plymouth he was to embark upon a tour of Germany.
General Booth arrived in Rochdale from Todmorden in a white car with red wheels, just before 8 pm. There was a crowd of 15 and 20 thousand people waiting to greet him in the Town Hall Square (where he can be seen in the photograph) whilst 2,000 more waited inside the Town Hall to hear him speak. He spoke for around 75 minutes.
The following morning general Booth left Rochdale for Delph at 9.15 am.
Other Churches & Sects.
Other churches within the town include the Christadelphians, the Christian Scientists, the Pentecostal Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons. Writing in ‘Old & New Rochdale (1881)
William Roberston records that: ‘many years ago Swedenborgians held services in a large room behind the ‘Robin Hood’ (public house) and afterwards rented a chapel in College Street, close on the corner of Albert Street, which had for several years been occupied by the New Connexion body. However, the Swedenborgians were unsuccessful in their undertaking and the premises were given up and converted to cottages.’
Sunday Schools
All the denominations of church & chapel were eventually to have their attached Sunday Schools. These institutions were to prove to be the backbone of education for children in the late 18th and early 19th century; indeed, for many they were the only source of education. In 1817 the Rochdale Sunday School Union was formed.
Whitsuntide
The Feast of Pentecost, more commonly known as 'Whitsuntide,' starts on the 7th Sunday after Easter, and is the celebration of the descent of the Holy Ghost to the !2 Apostles at Pentecost.
All the Churches and Chapels in the town would take part in the 'Whit Walks' - processions of 'Wintness' to their faith. Following the processions it was the custom to have a 'field day' for the children, followed by tea and buns.
Community Life
Social activities were - and remain - a large part of the community life of all the Churches, Chapels and Mosques. They all provided - and continue to provide - educational opportunities for children & young people, alongside work within their communities. In the past, church and chapel teas and bazaars, jumble sales and 'outings' were not merely a means to raise funds, but an important part of the social life of the various congregations. People saved for the whole year to fund their place on a day trip or to provide the teas and entertainments at Christmas and Whitsuntide.
The photograph of Lowerplace Methodist (Red School) Choir trip was taken around 1904 / 05 at Cheddar. H.S. Broadbent recalled that these trips started by rail at about 1.00 am on Saturday and returned to Rochdale by 8.30 am on Sunday. Any tripper not turning up for Sunday morning service was fined one shilling.
He went on to say that he ‘believed that the trips were organised by the Littleborough Co-op. The horse coach was a local trip up the Cheddar Gorge.’
Mosques in Rochdale.
In the 1950’s & 1960’s, when Moslems from Pakistan & Bangladesh came to work in Rochdale’s cotton mills, they naturally wished to have places of worship. Over the years, Moslems have met to worship in houses and latterly in purpose built Mosques. Today there are more than 50 Mosques in Rochdale.
The Golden Mosque on Lower Sherriff Street began life in 1963, in a former Conservative Club. At that time it could hold around 100 worshippers. In 1997 the ‘New Golden Mosque Committee’ were given planning permission to re-build the Mosque, and it was hoped there would then be space for around 470 worshippers. Today ( April 2008) the new Golden Mosque is almost completed.
One of the Mosques that started life in a terraced house in Dudley Street is the Jalalia Jame Mosque in Wardleworth. It was founded by Bangladeshi people in a house in Dudley Street in 1971, at which time it could accommodate around 40 people for prayers. Rochdale Council purchased the house in Dudley Street under a Compulsory Purchase order, and the community eventually purchased land and built Rochdale’s first purpose built Mosque. It was completed in the early 1980’s and had room for 100 worshippers. It has since been extended and can now accommodate around 1,500 people. It also has educational facilities so that children can learn the Quran etc.
A Mosque built on Mere Street, the Markazi Jamia Masjid Mosque, won an award for its architecture from Rochdale Civic Society. This Mosque houses 2,000 worshipers and is also used for cultural and educational purposes. The local community had originally worshipped at the old United Methodist Chapel on William Street, but it had become too small for the congregation. The Mosque has a dome and minaret, with a mehrab pointing the way to Mecca and a bab-ul-sadar.
