Church Heritage Record 624117

Aisled nave with clerestory and west porch. South-west tower. Chancel with south chapel and north organ chamber and vestries. Boiler house beneath north-west corner.

[Approximate] Nave 22.5m (24 ft) x 9 m (29 ft), chancel 11 m (36 ft) x 9 m (29ft), aisles 3.5 m (12 ft) wide.

Neolithic and Roman finds within a kilometre of the site suggest early settlement. The A56 to the west follows the line of a Roman road.  The Cheetham more familiar to us today was established in the mid-19th century to house the expanding population of Manchester. There was also some industry in the area. There was a tram route down Waterloo Road that presumably ran to the centre of Manchester. The area has been heavily redeveloped in a number of phases including tower blocks, low-rise housing and terraced housing in closes. It is one of Manchester’s most culturally diverse suburbs.

The church was designed by Edward Graham Paley [1823-1895] and Hubert James Austin [1841-1915], significant Victorian architects responsible for the design of many churches. Their most famous works date from this period when Austin joined the partnership, from the late 1860s through to WWI. St John’s was built in 1869-71, and was one of their first (as a new partnership) commissions for a large church. Brandwood describes it as ‘their most important church in Manchester’ and writes ‘Like St Chad’s [Kirbky, 1868] it ranks amongst the most powerful of all mid-Victorian churches.’ He explains that Austin brought new muscularity to their work and this can be seen at St John’s in the tower.

The church was built at the expense of a wealthy banker, Mr Lewis Loyd [1811-91] as a memorial to his parents (Loyd also gave the reredos, the vestries and the site of the school). Brandwood explains that Loyd had family connections with Sharpe, the founder of the architectural practice, which is likely to have gained the pair the commission. The church cost around £10,000 to build. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Loyd of Tillesden, Hawkhurst, Kent, laid the foundation stone in 1869. The church was consecrated by Bishop Fraser on 10th August 1871. A west porch was added in 1894 and within the last 15 years, simple pods have been inserted at the west end of the north aisle and roof repairs have been made.

The archaeological potential of the site is low. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot.

St John’s is a sizeable church with a prominent tower which is visible from some distance. The church has a single continuous roof, which wraps around the east end. Brandwood describes the stone exterior as having an ‘early French character’.

The north and south elevations have few buttresses. Single lancet windows with hoodmoulds and headstops are placed within the lean-to aisles with a continuous stone sill beneath and two-light lancets in the clerestory above with a continuous hoodmould above them. A dentil cornice runs around the building above that, replaced by a dog-tooth design around the chancel and sanctuary.  The ground stage of the tower is tall and the door at ground level is set within four orders, with a carved tympanum above. This was the main entrance before the west porch was added. Blind arcades with attached stone columns in the upper stages. Above it are two louvred lights on each side. The west end has a lean-to narthex with a pair of square-headed entrance doors within pointed arches under gabled labels. The tympana carry carved decoration. A small addition to the south provides a south porch. There are three pointed lancets in the nave wall above the narthex with a cusped roundel set above them.

Attached to the north-east corner are two vestries in the Early English style which links to the former rectory.

The interior is accessed through the narthex. The original west door within has an inscription with the date of the building in the tympanum above, 1871 [This church dedicated to S: Iohn Evan & built by Lewis Loyd in grateful remembrance of his father and mother was consecrated Aug. 10 1871]. It is a vast space with bare brick walls with sandstone surrounds, banding, details and dressings and an uninterrupted view up the nave to the chancel. Four-bay arcades (three on south side to make room for tower) with quatrefoil piers to north side and octagonal to south. The east responds have foliate capitals and arches are pointed and have three orders, the outer two keel-moulded rolls and the inner plain chamfered. The clerestory has paired lancets with stone shafts with roll and hollow moulded capitals between the bays.                                                                               

The continuous roof high above is of open timber. The common rafters have collars and scissor bracing and the principal trusses additional arched braces (appearing five-sided), tie-beams with king struts and braced wall posts.  At the east end, the apse is turned with plain-rafters. The principle rafters come to rest on decorated stone corbels between each bay.                                                 

At the west end, the west doorway has a lintel with a central support and above is a pointed tympanum with a mosaic of Christ in majesty surrounded by angels. Records show it as the work of Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) executed 1877. This is flanked by blind arcading (with polished granite shafts). To the south, at the west end of the south aisle, is the base of the tower which forms the baptistery and is also used for storage. Tall, wide pointed arches open into the nave and aisle and a door in the south-west corner accesses the tower.

The nave has a cleared, carpeted area at the west end. The original fixed pine pews remain on raised boarded platforms further east and a stone central aisle extends between the two sides. The pews are quite plain with the bench ends decorated with trefoils and moulded tops.  The pews have been removed from the aisles to either side though the raised boarded floors remain in place. In the north aisle simple boxy pods provide WCs towards the west, at the east end a door accesses onto two vestries. To the south the aisle has been cleared and a tea-point has been set up. Raised by a step at the east end is the south chapel behind a wood screen (open work panels with tracery and cresting above, inscription, 1906). The chapel is carpeted and seated with modern plastic metal-framed chairs.

Original light fittings extend out into the nave at clerestory level. These are large Y-shaped wrought-iron brackets fixed to the wall below the clerestory window sills with an angled stay fixed to the dividing mullion between the two lancets. Modern electric light fittings are suspended on chains from the front of the bracket.

There is no structural division between the nave and chancel, the change being marked by triple wall shafts and by three steps and a low stone screen which incorporates the pulpit on the north side. The choir floor is carpeted. Pine choir stalls are fixed to raised wood board platforms on either side. These have arcaded fronts, pierced seat backs and shaped bench ends displaying carved circles, sun flowers (also seen on the pulpit, they are an example of the up to the minute decoration and the architect Nesfield was using a similar motif at the same time inspired by Japanese design which he termed ‘pies’) and stars. Upholstered PVC chairs are laid out in front of the stall frontals. The side walls each have arcades of two bays, piers are octagonal on the north and circular on the south. The east responds have foliate capitals and arches are of three roll and hollow moulded orders with cusped roundels in the spandrels. The clerestory has two lancets on each side. The organ chamber on the north is a continuation of the aisle as is the chapel on the south which is separated from the chancel by a plain metal screen painted black and decorated with gilded leaves and roundels.

The apsidal sanctuary is raised by two steps and laid in decorative encaustic floor tiles. The altar is raised once more. The east wall has two tiers of blind arcading with trefoiled heads and circular shafts of polished granite and a stone bench built into the curved wall. At the centre of the lower tier is the reredos in a wider triple-arched setting and above within the arcade are mosaics of St Michael, St Gabriel, St Raphael and St Uriel. Five lancet windows at clerestory level. A plaque in the chancel records that these were given by the parish in thanks to the benefactor Lewis Loyd. Records show the mosaics as the work of Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) executed 1897.