Building Name

Church of St Mark, City Road, Hulme

Date
1850 - 1852
Street
City Road
District/Town
Hulme, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Work
New build

A detour to S. Mark’s, in the City Road, was so much lost time.  This is an insignificant Third-Pointed church, of meanest type and small scale. Vapid window tracery, dull buttresses, heavy parapets, a disproportionate chancel, and a dumpy west tower with battlements make up a most uninviting whole. The architect was Mr Shellard. [Ecclesiologist 1857 page 809]

CONSECRATION OF SAINT MARK'S CHURCH, HULME  - The ceremony of consecrating the newly-erected church of St Mark. City Road, Hulme, took place on Thursday, the Lord Bishop of Manchester officicating. The church, which is built of stone externally, stands at the junction of Garner Street with the City Road. The foundation stone was laid on 16 June 1851 by John Sharp Esq. ……  It has been constructed from designs by Mr E. H. Shellard, architect, King-street, and consists of a nave, north and South aisles, chancel, and tower, the chancel being at the east end and the tower at the west. The perpendicular Gothic style, of about the thirteenth century, has been generally preserved. The tower stands with one-half its base in advance of the body of the church, but the nave is finished square up to the tower within, leaving the remaining space on each side for the gallery staircases., The nave is 70 feet in length by 50 feet 9 inches, the altitude being 37 feet to the spring of the roof, which has a further rise of 8 feet, making the total height 45 feet. The chancel is 20 feet 6 inches by 23 feet and 34 feet high to the ridge, having two small vestries on its southern side. The tower, which has a firm appearance, and somewhat low for its breadth (being originally designed to support a spire), is 21 feet square, and has at each of its isolated corners a pair of buttresses, at right angles to each other, rising in five stages to within a short distance of the embattled parapet, the embrasure being about 74 feet from the ground. The nave is divided from the aisles by five Tudor arches on each side, standing on clustered pillars, which support the roofs of the aisles and nave, and have corbels upon which rest the north and south galleries. There is also a gallery at the west end, extending backwards into the tower. In this gallery the organ is erected, and it also furnishes accommodation for the choir and the Sabbath school children. The total length of the structure, exclusive of the external buttresses, but including the walls, is 116 feet 6 inches by 55 feet 3 inches. The whole is of random-course walling, except, the windows and doors, which are in tooled ashlar. The principal approach is through a bayed entrance under the tower, there being also a door at the north-west and south west extremities, which give access to the galleries as well as to the body of the church.  The intrados of the arch of each door is in plain moulding; the extrados of the two side doors being mounted with square crockets. The spandrel of the arch of the principal entrance is filled with a quatrefoil, having an unwrought shield in the centre. The church is lighted on the north and south sides by five large windows, each divided into three bays by two moulded mullions quinquefoiled above, and then subdivided into six bays, finished in trefoil. There is an external buttress between each window. The clerestory has the same number of windows, each divided into two bays, having traceried heads of the same geometrical character; but the arches are more depressed than the lower windows, being struck from four centres. Over the door in the tower is a large ornamental window; above it, a small lancet one; and in the upper stage of the tower (which contains one bell), there is a louvred window fronting each way. The chancel, which ascends by two or three steps from the nave, is at its eastern end pierced with a large window, divided into five bays by four mullions. It is then cinque-foiled, and sub-divided into two arches, finished ornamentally above. Beneath it are panels for the inscription of the decalogue. There are also two windows on the north-east side of the chancel, divided by two mullions and a single transom, with traceried heads. The front of the gallery is filled with trefoil-headed tracery; the roofs are open, and the trusses and ribs are suitably ornamented. The pews and the other wood fittings are stained in imitation of dark oak. The pulpit is placed at the north-east, and the reading desk at the south-east corner of the nave; the baptismal font being nearer to the north-western extremity. The church will accommodate 1,000 persons, and a large proportion of the seats are free. The building is inclosed by a low wall and palisades, which run parallel with the buttresses, and to which they are attached. Mr Samuel Drinkwater has officiated as clerk to the works, under the direction of Mr Shellard, the architect. Mr Mark Foggart, Cheetham Hill, was the contractor. The church, in its general arrangement, presents a neat, light, and agreeable appearance. [Manchester Examiner and Times 22 May 1852 page 6]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 19 April 1851. Page 3 - contracts
Reference    Manchester Guardian 18 June 1851 Page 5 - foundation stone
Reference    Builder 28 June 1851 Page 405
Reference    Manchester Guardian 22 May 1852 page 6 – consecration
Reference    Manchester Examiner and Times 22 May 1852 page 6 - consecration
Reference    Builder 29 May 1852. Page 342 – consecration
Reference    Ecclesiologist 1857 page 809