St Edward's (RC) Church, Thurloe Street, Rusholme:

• Foundation         Foundation stone laid 11 April 1861
• Opening             Thursday 27 February 1862

Although the completion of the tower and spire was never carried out, the church is largely unaltered outside.  The interior was reordered in 1963, with much loss of original furnishings, although the original structure, internal volumes and roof timbers are largely intact.

NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, RUSHOLME MANCHESTER - This edifice has just been erected in Thurloe‑street, Rusholme, one of the suburbs of Manchester. The edifice is wholly built externally with Yorkshire stone "parpoints" and dressings of Hollington stone, and consists of a nave and side aisles, with apsidal chancel, and a lady‑chapel at the extremity of its south aisle. A tower at the south‑western angle serves as a porch, and it is intended to be crowned with an octangular spire about 130 feet high. The style of architecture is Geometric Middle Pointed; the details being treated with considerable originality. Internally the building is about 95 feet in length by 46 feet in width; the nave and aisles separated on each side by six cylindrical piers of polished Aberdeen granite, resting on octangular bases of white Sicilian marble. These piers support the arches on which rest the clerestory and roof of the nave, the aisle roofs abutting against them, and divided into bays by internal flying buttresses of brick, so designed as to present a continued series of transverse arches, seen from either extremity of the aisles. The high altar will be of Caen stone, having pillars of serpentine, and a rich tabernacle and canopy. The church will seat about 600 worshippers, and its cost (exclusive of fittings, but inclusive of the spire and architect's commission) will be about £3,200, £1,000 of which is the gift of two brothers, Messrs R and P. O'Connor, of Rusholme. Mr. Edward W. Pugin is the architect and Mr. John Eaton of Ashton-under-Lyne the builder. [The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 1 March 1862 page 91]

RUSHOLME - A Roman Catholic chapel, dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor, the last of the Saxon kings, has been opened at Rusholme. The site is in Thurloe-street. The building was designed by Mr. Pugin, of London; and Mr. Eaton, of Ashton, was the contractor. The style is decorated, of the Edwardian period; and the dimensions are 90 feet long by 47 feet wide. The nave and side aisles are divided by an arcade of Aberdeen granite columns, with Sicilian marble bases. Transverse arches are thrown from the buttresses inside the edifice to the piers of the nave; and on these arches the roofs of the aisles are raised. The building possesses accommodation for about 600people; and its erection has cost about £3,000. There are two stained glass windows over the altar, which is of Caen stone, with marble shafts. [Builder 22 March 1862 Page 210]

The church contains two windows by R B Edmundson & Son [Manchester Courier 8 March 1862. Page 9 Col 2]

ST EDWARD'S CHURCH, RUSHOLME, the other work of this architect (E W Pugin) is, like at Stretford, an edifice of Yorkshire "pierrepoints" with 'dressings of Hollington stone. The style of architecture is also English Middle Pointed; the tracery of the windows, particularly of the west window of the nave, indicating an attempt, by no means unsuccessful, at a combination of Geometric and flowing work. The church has a well-proportioned nave, with clerestory, lighted by cinquefoil windows, and separated from its north and south aisles by a moulded arcade, borne, like the Stretford church, on grey marble piers with bases of Sicilian white marble; an octangular apsidal sanctuary, too slightly divided from the nave, a sacristy and an unfinished tower at the south-west angle of the nave. Over the entrance at the west end is an organ gallery, a feature that we are sorry to see is always to be found in Mr Edward Pugin's churches. The body of the church is fitted up with very well-designed open seats of pitch pine - a beautiful material, quite common in modern Manchester churches, but seldom seen in London. Though a small church, St. Edward's, Rusholme, has much about it that is peculiar and original, the severies of the aisle roofs are not divided, as is usual, by timber trusses, but by internal flying buttresses of plastered brickwork; a novelty whose actual utility is not quite apparent: they appear to have necessitated the undisguised introduction of a row of detestable iron tension rods, a feature which IL would really some of our new-light Gothic architects are rather proud of than otherwise. We should greatly regret to see the principle of tension - that besetting vice of all modern engineering—invade the construction of our modern churches. [The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal Vol 28 1 July 1865 page 219]

In 1963 a major phase of work was undertaken by Geoffrey Williams of Greenhalgh & Williams. New roof lights were inserted and the sanctuary was reordered, with a new predella, marble floor replacing the original encaustic tiles, marble lining to the wall, high altar and communion rails. The Lady Chapel was altered in a similar fashion. The gallery was strengthened and fitted with a new timber front and screen to form a narthex and new benches were provided. A new font was provided, and a wrought iron gate fitted to the baptistery in the northwest corner beneath the gallery. The church was extended on the northeast side to provide sacristies and confessionals. The work was completed in 1964.   Since that time the baptistery has been converted to a piety stall, the altar moved forward and the communion rails removed. [taking stock]

Reference    Manchester Times 13 April 1861 page 5 - foundation stone
Reference    Manchester Courier 13 April 1861 page 7 – foundation stone
Reference    Manchester Courier 1 March 1862. Page 7 Col 2 with notes - opening
Reference    Builder 22 March 1862 Page 210
Reference    The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 1 March 1862 page 91(114)
Reference    The Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal Vol 28 1 July 1865 page 219 – Architecture in Manchester
Reference    taking-stock.org.uk/building/manchester-st-edward/