Home
Restoration  Activities   Music

The Parish Church of All Saints' Stand, Whitefield

Buildings

Historical background

All Saints' Church is one of the many "Waterloo" churches built as an expression of national thankfulness for victory at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The one million pounds set aside in 1818, and further enhanced by £500,000, was part of the Government's strategy to counteract the possibility of political unrest sparked by the industrial revolution, culminating in the "Peterloo" massacre in Manchester in 1819.

The decision to build at Stand, an open pastoral area at the time, was considered necessary to divide the enormous parish of St.Mary Prestwich as the local population was growing year by year. In 1821, the Parish of Prestwich had a population of 14,000, but between 1826 and 1926 a further 32 churches were built in the old Parish which, by 1931, had a population of 205,000.

Sir John Soane, a distinguished London architect, was approached in 1821 to prepare designs for the church to cost no more than £12,000 and seating some 1800 people : this he found to be impractical and was passed to the young Charles Barry and the cost limit raised to £20,000.

The foundation stone was laid on the 3rd August 1821 and the Bishop of Chester consecrated the church for worship on the 8th September 1826.

The slender tower is supported on open arches at the West end of the rather “foursquare” Nave and Aisles: Barry designed a similar West end at St.Matthew, Campfield in Manchester demolished in the early 60's. Strong buttresses surmounted by pinnacles characterized a dignified silhouette when viewed from afar. The stone is hard millstone grit from the Pennines.

Bells were placed in the tower in 1856, cast by Mears of Whitechapel; they were repaired and rehung in 1896 and re-cast in 1912 by Gillett & Johnson of Croydon. The bells were rehung on ball bearings by Taylors of Loughborough in 1977. The Tenor bell weighs 22cwt and has a wheel diameter of over 6ft and is the heaviest ring of bells in this part of the diocese.

Eight bells form the peal and a carillon plays four hymn tunes, one at each of the following times each day:

The hours only are struck as the Cambridge/Westminster chime has been removed for restoration.

The Clock, situated between the ringing chamber and the bells has three 5ft diameter illuminated dials and a 6ft diameter unlit dial at a higher level in order to be visible to the community. It has a pendulum and escapement movement with the clock weights wound by electric motors. The present clock made by Smiths of Derby and placed in the tower in 1912 replaced the original one which was gifted to St John’s on Radcliffe New Rd, Radcliffe (now demolished).

Although built in the reign of George IV, whose coat of arms is set on the front of the West gallery, the design is based on 15th. century Perpendicular, slender in construction and crowned by the timber, lath and plaster vaults over the Nave, Aisles and Chancel. Side galleries are an important feature of the design as they brace the slender columns supporting the vaults and outer roofs. Originally, the interior was completely open, with a flat floor, and fully pewed apart from the Chancel with two pulpits set in front of a screen, roughly placed in the position of the present communion rails, and behind which was a narrow vestry entered by a door in the middle of the East wall. The position of the top step and flanking walls to this entrance can be seen in the blind arcades beneath the East window on the outside.

The interior was brilliantly lit through plain white glass in diamond paned leaded lights. The East window  with coats of arms and figures of St John, St James and St Peter was inserted in 1841. In 1864 the present grey/green leaded windows were inserted and major alterations to the layout carried out in 1880.

The 1827 Renn organ was removed from the West gallery to the North aisle, pews removed and the Chancel furnished with clergy and choir stalls. In 1898, the Georgian box pews were removed pine pews installed, the galleries altered and the Eastern screen taken down.

Although these alterations were somewhat radical, it was not until after the first world war that the East end of the church was transformed from a Georgian preaching-house into a traditional chancel with a full array of appropriate fittings. Between 1919 and 1937 the oak reredos, choir stalls and back canopies and finally the rood screen and pulpit were donated, thus ending for ever the Barry liturgical scheme.

Finally, in 1957 the Samuel Renn organ was removed, a new gallery floor inserted and a large organ built above a Lady Chapel.

The workmanship of the Chancel fittings is of the highest order and the carved figures are particularly noteworthy. The carved Cross stands some ten feet high above the 20 feet high screen.

High above the Nave arches  there are four shields - three with red backgrounds carry the arms of the Archdiocese of York, Diocese of Chester and Diocese of Manchester whilst the fourth, with a blue background, carries the arms of Trinity College, Dublin, being the University of Canon R.W. Warner in whose incumbency the interior colour scheme was returned to that left by Charles Barry, having been painted over and diapered at the end of the 19th.Century. 

In 1995 the organ was rebuilt by Nicholson of Worcester, providing the church with a magnificent versatile instrument which enhances the liturgy and forms the focus of concerts and recitals by the Music & Arts Society founded in 1997.

The Church Plate dates from 1826, consisting of collection plate, and a pair of chalices, cup and decanter in Sterling silver and were a gift from the mother church of the deanery, St Mary‘s Prestwich.

Rectors of All Saints' Church, Stand

1826-1876  Rev Thomas Corser

1876-1903 Rev George Rudd

1903-1910 Rev Frederick Ernest Lowe

1910-1946 Canon Arthur Kershaw

1947-1972 Ven. Arthur H. Ballard (also Archdeacon of Rochdale and later Archdeacon of Manchester)

1972-1976 Rev Patrick M. Lacy

1976-1997 Canon Robert W Warner

1998-2004 Rev Richard W Bailey

2005-          Rev Alison J. Hardy       

Home | Restoration | Activities | Music | Top | 

Stewart Barnet, website editor

Last revised 30th March 2005