Building Name

Church of St Mark, Holland Street, Newton Heath

Date
1883 - 1884
Street
Holland Street
District/Town
Newton Heath, Manchester
County/Country
GMCA, England
Work
New Build
Contractor
Cordingly and Stopford

THE NEW CHURCH OF ST MARK, HOLLAND STREET, On Saturday afternoon the Hon Miss Egerton laid the foundation stone of the new Church of St Mark, Holland Street, Oldham Road. … The church, which has been designed in the Early English style, and will seat over 500 persons, comprises a nave 70 feet by 30 feet, with narrow aisles used simply as passages; chancel 33 feet long and 23 feet wide, with apsidal end; north and south transepts; clergy and choir vestries and organ chamber at the north east corner. The Baptistery is an octagonal extension at the west end in combination with the two main entrances. The foundations have already been put in by Mr Robert Carlyle at a cost of £416, the sum being considerably over the contract owing to the great depth it was necessary to go in order to obtain a solid bed.  The contract for the superstructure, exclusive of the seating has been let to Messrs Cordingly and Stopford for £2,776. Messrs Tate and Popplewell of Mosley Street are the architects. [Manchester Guardian 3 September 1883 page 6]

MANCHESTER - The foundation-stone of the new church of St. Mark, Holland-street, Manchester, was laid on the 1st inst., by the Hon. Miss Egerton. The church, which has been designed in the Early English style, to seat over 500 persons, comprises nave, 70 ft. by 30 ft., with narrow aisles used simply as passages; chancel, 33 ft. long by 23 ft. wide, with apsidal end; north and south transepts, clergy and choir vestries, and organ-chamber at the north-east corner. The baptistery will be an octagonal extension at the west end in combination with the two main entrances. There is to be third porch at the south-east end. The church a will be lighted by a large window at the west end over the baptistery arch ; in the chancel by five two-light tracery windows, and an extra light near the ceiling to throw light on to the pulpit. The aisles will have four double windows on each side; and the transepts, besides the west and south windows, which are to be somewhat similar to those last named, will have in the gables four large circular traceried windows. Externally the church will have one wide roof spanning both nave and aisles and continued on in one line to apsidal termination, broken only by an oak bell-cot placed over the chancel arch. The transepts will have their roofs running parallel with the nave, and at the west end the lean-to roofs of the porches with the octagonal baptistery between will break the great height of the main gable. The nave arcade is to be in six bays, the piers of which are to be of stock brickwork with the splays carried round arches. The materials used will be bricks, white ends inside and out, with stock and terra-cotta dressings, supplied by Mr. Jabez Thompson, of Northwich; blue slates, and principals and other timber work in red deal. The foundations have been already put in by Mr. Robert Carlyle at a cost of £416, a sum considerably over the contract, owing to the great extra depth it was necessary to go in order to obtain a solid bed. The contract for the superstructure, excluding the seating, has been let to Messrs. Cordingly & Stopford for £2,776, and Messrs. Tate & Popplewell, of Mosley-street, are the architects. [Builder 8 September 1883 page 338]

CONSECRATION OF ST MARK’S CHURCH, NEWTON HEATH – Yesterday morning the Bishop of Manchester consecrated the new church of St Mark, Holland Street, Newton Heath. … Accommodation is provided for 503 worshippers, and all the seats are intended to be free and unappropriated for ever. The church, which is from designs prepared by Messrs Tate and Popplewell, architects, Mosley Street, Manchester, is built of red brick with terra cotta dressings. It is in the early English style of architecture. The cost has been about £3,300. [Manchester Guardian 21 November 1884 page 7]

CONSECRATION OF ST. MARK'S CHURCH, NEWTON HEATH. The Bishop of Manchester yesterday consecrated the new church which has been erected in Holland-street Newton Heath, and dedicated to St. Mark. Holland Street is in the midst of a dense and purely working class population, and the conventional district which has been set aside for the new church out of the parish of St. Philip's (Bradford-road) contains upwards of 5,000 residents. The church has been erected from designs by Messrs. Tate and Popplewell, architects, of this city, is the early English order of architecture, freely and simply treated, and consists of a wide nave —with narrow aisles, intended for use as passages only, in order that the whole congregation may have an uninterrupted view of the chancel—small transepts, and an apsidal chancel of fair proportions. The nave is in six bays, each of about 12 feet, with splayed arches resting on wide octagonal piers, and the two eastern-most bays opening into the transepts are roofed parallel with the chancel and nave. The chancel is lighted by five large two-light traceried windows, and the windows of the nave are also in two lights, filled with clear sheet-glass in quarries. An organ chamber and two vestries are provided on either side of the chancel, and the baptistery is an octagonal extension of the nave between the two main porches at the west end of the church. A third entrance is provided at the south-east corner of the nave. The exterior and interior walls are of red brick with terra cotta dressings, and the roofs are covered with blue slates outside, and inside are partially coiled so as to show the principal rafters, which are stained and varnished. The floors throughout are tiled. The chancel furniture, pulpit, lectern, reading desk, &c., is partly in oak and partly in varnished pine, and the nave "is seated with low open pews, also in stained and varnished pine. There is no tower, but a bell-cote of oak, with a single bell, marks the division of the nave and chancel roofs. The whole of the sittings, for 580 persons, are entirely free and unappropriated. The total cost of building, furnishing, &c., has been £3,762, the whole of which has been already subscribed or promised, and a considerable proportion has been provided small offerings by the residents in the locality. The Dean and Canons of Manchester gave the site, which comprises with churchyard, nearly 3,000 square yards, and out of their capitular revenues have provided an endowment of £150 a year. [Manchester Courier Friday  21 November 1884 page 6]

The church closed in 1958 or 1959

Reference    Manchester Guardian 14 July 1883 page 4 – contract for superstructure
Reference    Manchester Guardian 3 September 1883 page 6 – foundation stone
Reference    Builder 8 September 1883 page 338
Reference    Manchester Guardian 21 November 1884 page 7 – consecration
Reference    Manchester Courier Friday  21 November 1884 page 6
Reference    Manchester Courier 22 November 1884 page 15 - abridged
Reference    Pevsner South Lancashire. Page 300