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This page records a little about the now demolished church in Massie Street, Cheadle, Cheshire, England.
Cheadle, Cheshire (not to be confused with the same name in Staffordshire) lies about 8 (~12km) miles south of central Manchester, and adjoins the nearby town of Stockport. It is now largely a dormitory town with heavy traffic to the north (Manchester's orbital motorway, M60; to the west (main route from Manchester to the out-of-town shopping malls in north Cheshire, A34) and through its congested High Street, A560.
Massie Street is off the High Street and runs south, parallel to Wilmslow Road. The site of the Congregational Church is now occupied by Trinity Church which is joint Congregational and Methodist. Much of the centre of Cheadle is now a conservation area, including areas close to the site of the church.
(From the Order of Service for the induction of the Revd. A J A Hall, Sept. 30 1948)
In its early years the church was heavily supported by the Kendals and the Milnes families who owned the central Manchester department store, Kendal Milnes, in Deansgate. This patronage didn't last forever, and its loss was largely responsible for the decline in the fabric of the church from WWII onwards, and which was too large to now be supported by its members.
My connection with the church is that my late father, Donald Stewart 1909-1995, was church secretary from about 1950 onwards, and I remember there being frequent meetings where the problems of the gas bills, dry rot and penetrating damp were all discussed. Behind the church was the (Sunday) school hall, and beyond this was a kitchen, and rooms used as class rooms or for meetings. The largest of these was known as the Wood Memorial Hall. I remember being told that the church organ was one of the better ones in the area, and can recall full choral performances of Handel's Messiah taking place with the organ in pride of place.
The brief historical notes are taken (with corrections to location references) from the Orders of Service leaflet for the last services held there on July 30th. 1972.
Photographs were taken shortly before demolition, and these record a few of the building's features:
Click on the above for an enlarged version - use your back button to return here
Other photographs, some from my collection follow:-
At the bottom of the page I've transcribed the names on the WWI Memorial Plaque in the hope that this may help family historians.
In addition to those published here, there's one more, indistinct, of a memorial plaque to Morvydd (died Sept 17th. 1937), wife of the Revd. F C Vaughan Bishop.
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The front window |
Looking towards the altar table, screen and organ |
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Order of Service for J W Paull |
John Weston Paull Memorial Plaque |
George S Wood Memorial Plaque |
In memory of John Dewhurst Milne |
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Plaque after removal |
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF Donald Adamson --------- Arthur Holt Frank Adamson --- Herbert M Kendal Alec J Bardsley ---- Alexander N Milne George A Bailey ------- James Minshall Charles Bradbury --- Frederick M Paull Frank Buxton ---------- Arthur PL Pry William Callan ---------- Herbert Shaw John Clifford --------- Geoffrey Wilson Robert Clifford --------- Harry Wiswall Fred Finney --- Thomas R Worthington WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919 "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE" |
Last edited: July 1 2009
