Church of St Edmund Whalley Range Manchester
- Foundation: 29 July 1881
- Consecrated: 20 December 1882;
- Declared redundant: 1 July 1995
NEW CHURCH, ALEXANDRA ROAD, MANCHESTER - This church is proposed to be erected in Alexandra Road, Moss Side, Manchester. It will accommodate over 1,600 worshippers, and will consist of nave (lighted by clerestory), north and south aisles, and bold east-end apse, the arrangements for organ chamber being in the tower at the north-east end. The church is entered from three external doors, two being off the Alexandra Road and one from the Range Road. All the entrances have spacious vestibules, from which the nave and aisles are approached through double swing doors, care being taken to cut off all draughts. At the conclusion of the service four other doors thrown open, so as to afford easy means of exit, two of which open direct from the nave. Special attention is given to the ventilation. Fresh air is introduced through numerous openings, which well distributed through the church, and in all cases having a vertical direction through glazed earthenware pipes built into the walls and opening into the church through the internal window-sill. Fresh air is also introduced into the more central parts of the church from behind the foliage of the caps of the columns which support the clerestory, - these columns being hollow, and communicating with the external air at the base by means of glazed earthenware pipes laid in an inclined direction, under the floor, from the external wall, and thug forming a duct. The vitiated air is extracted by means of numerous perforations in the ceiling, which connected with a trunk or flue constructed in the roof, which discharges itself into a vertical shaft carried up in the tower of the church. The church has been designed by Mr. Henry R. Price, architect, 25 Cross Street, and is to be carried out under his direction and superintendence. [British Architect 7 February 1879 page 58]
A Gothic church is to be erected in Alexandra Road, Moss Side, Manchester, at the corner of Mayfield Road (sic). The plans have been prepared by Mr. Henry R. Price, architect, of Manchester, and approved. The proposed structure will contain about 1,000 sittings. The estimated cost of the building is between £10,000 and £12,000.
ST EDMUND’S CHURCH ALEXANDRA PARK – The new church of St Edmund, Alexandra Park was consecrated yesterday morning by the Bishop of Manchester. … The church stands at the corner of Range Road, and the foundation stone was laid by Mrs Fraser, on 29 July 1881. It is built of brick with Yorkshire stone facings and white stone dressings, and is in the early English style of architecture. The church consists of a nave 100 feet by 35 feet; also two aisles, each 95 feet by 13 feet 6 inches. The clergy and choir vestries are on the south side, in close proximity to the proposed parsonage. The chancel, which is lighted by seven tracery-headed windows, is 38 feet long by 25 feet wide, having a handsome tiled floor. The organ chamber is on the south side of the chancel, and is connected to the latter by a large moulded archway. The tower, which is at the north-east end of the church, and the lower part of which forms one of the principal entrances, is a present incomplete for want of funds, but when finished will rise to a height of about 170 feet, and terminate with a wrought iron finial as a lightning conductor. The church is entered by two entrances, one at the north-east end and the other at the north-west end, having spacious vestibules. Being approached from these vestibules through two pairs of swing doors the building is thus protected from all draughts. In addition to these entrances there are provided two extra doors to be used only for exit, one at the west and one at the south-east end. The nave arcade, which is lofty, is supported on polished granite columns, with Yorkshire stone caps and bases. The side aisles are lighted by means of fourteen two-light tracery headed windows; the nave by twenty-eight tracery-headed windows in the clerestory. At the west end there is a large and very handsome six-light window with rich tracery head. The pulpit and reading desk are constructed of pitch pine, the panels being filled with open tracery, resting on stone moulded bases. The seats and timber work throughout are constructed of pitch pine. … … The builder is Mr James Herd, and the work has been carried out from the designs of Mr (H) R Price, architect, of Cross Street. [Manchester Guardian 21 December 1882 page 6]
The consecration of the church had been delayed because the legal formalities were incomplete. [Manchester Guardian 28 October 1882 Page 5 Column 4]