Presbyterian Church Ormond Street All Saints Manchester
LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF A NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - The first stone of a new Presbyterian or covenanting church about to be erected in Ormond Street, opposite All Saints Church, Chorlton-on-Medlock, was laid on Thursday forenoon last. This, we are informed, will be the first place of worship erected in England by this particular denomination of Christians, who have hitherto assembled in places not originally built for religious purposes. The edifice will be in the Grecian style of architecture, and will accommodate about 400 persons, with a school-room beneath the church calculated to hold about 350 scholars. There will be a manse attached to the church. The total expense of the erection will be about £1,600. The architect is Mr Edward Nicholson, of King Street in this town, and the builders are Messrs Hay, Nish, and M’Kean of Oxford Street. [ Manchester Guardian 8 May 1844 Page 4]
The first church was built by the Scotch Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1844. The architect of this modest brick chapel was Edward Nicholson of Manchester. Costing £1,600, it could accommodate about 400 persons and had a schoolroom beneath. When the foundation stone was laid in May 1844, it was asserted that it was the first church to be built by this particular Presbyterian sect in England.
In the early 1850s the church passed into the hands of another congregation, the Welsh Calvinist Methodists, who in turn sold it to the Roman Catholic Church in 1876. This saga of changing congregations is an apt reminder of those fine and deep fractures which characterised the world of Victorian religion and also of the important part played in the history of modern Manchester by immigrants from other parts of Britain. The purchase by the Catholic Church appears to have been associated with the plans of Bishop Herbert Vaughan to establish St Bede's College in the Collegiate College run by the Xaverian Brothers in the adjoining premises. However, within a few months St Bede's moved to larger premises on Alexandra Road. A district having been assigned to the new church, it became the Church of the Holy Family Mission. Some time later, land was purchased at the rear of the church and a school for infants was opened in 1892. An important change did occur in 1908 with the opening of St Augustine's in York Street, a few hundred yards away on the other side of Oxford Road. This became the major Catholic church of the district and from 1908 until 1940, the Holy Family Church served as a Chapel of Ease for St Augustine's. In 1940, that church was destroyed in an air raid and the Grosvenor Square church once again became the parish church. It then became known as St Augustine's and the Holy Family. Although the church was restored and redecorated after the war, Nicholson's building was felt to be unsatisfactory for modern church needs and it was demolished in 1966.
Reference Manchester Guardian 8 May 1844 Page 4 – foundation stone