St Gabriel Erskine Street Hulme

The foundation stone of St. Gabriel's Church, Erskine Street, Hulme, was laid on Tuesday 11 September 1866 by the Hon. Wilbraham Egerton, M.P., afterwards Lord Egerton, of Tatton. Lord Egerton, of Tatton, gave £3,500 towards the edifice, the Birley family presented £1,500, and the Manchester Church Building Society also made a considerable grant.  At the time of its erection it was still surrounded by open fields. These were soon filled up with terraces of cottage houses, and the church became known as 'the church in the little back alley'.  A proposed spire was never completed.

CONSECRATION OF A NEW CHURCH IN HULME - On Saturday afternoon the Church of St Gabriel, Hulme was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester. This new church which has been more than two years in building, the foundation stone having been laid by the Hon, W Egerton in August 1866 is situated in Erskine street, Hulme, very near the boundary of the city, and about midway between the City and Stretford roads. It Has been arranged to accommodate 750 persons, the sittings being entirely free throughout. The site originally selected fronted the City Road  and adjoined the present school church in which services have been conducted for several years past by the Rev. William Milner, the incumbent of the new church, Various circumstances stood in the way of the conveyance of that site and compelled the Committee to resort to the only other available one, in a subordinate street hemmed in by houses on all sides. The church, however, is of considerable height and, although the steeple is still unfinished, rises well above the adjoining buildings.

 St Gabriel is, so far as we know, the only example in Manchester of a brick church  that is one in which the facing bricks show both outside and in. On the outside are red bricks, relieved by blue in bands and patterns. Inside the walls are lined throughout with white bricks, with arches, strings and various devices worked in red brick on the white ground. The area of the site being a simple rectangle and of not more than sufficient size the plan of the church is likewise a parallelogram, terminating trapezoidally at the east end which faces Erskine street. The north aisle extends to the extreme western limit of the site but the nave and south aisle stop a little short of it so as to allow access to and from the central west door. A portion of the western bay of the south aisle contains a brick built porch, which is the main entrance for the congregation. For other uses and for exit, there are in all six doors   three at the western end and three at the eastern end of the building. The nave is divided from the north and south aisles by arcades of five arches each The pillars are of cream coloured Bath stone, the shafts being banded with red stone. The baptistry which is oblong in shape, is at the west end of the north aisle and is marked off from the aisle by a couplet of tall narrow arches resting on a central pillar. The font which is oval to suit the shape of the baptistry ins intended, hereafter, to be carved and decorated. The baptistry has a small door by means of which mothers and infants at the time of christening may enter without disturbing the congregation. Two organ chambers and choir vestries are at the other end of the north aisle and beyond them, to the east, is the apsidal minister's vestry. There is a corresponding apse on the south side of the chancel in which and in the adjoining south choir quasi transept are seats for the school children. The chancel which is 13 feet by 20 feet projects a little more to the east than the two smaller apses, and is also about double their height. The smaller apses are lighted by an arcade of lancet windows all round; while the great central apse has three two light stone traceried windows, divided by circular brick buttresses terminating with carved and conical caps. Inside and out the eaves have elaborately moulded brick cornices, those for the apses being especially effective. The steeple will come over the western bay of the chancel. The staircase turret leading to it is placed at the south west arcade. The aisle windows are in pairs with stone carved heads. Each bay in the clerestory has a stone rose window in the centre with a lancet on each side. The south door has a deeply recessed and moulded brick arch with ornamental brick and stone panels above. The west end is lighted by a great  three-light window upwards of 20 feet high, with a single lancet on each side of it. The roofs are covered with purple slates with bands and patterns of green slates. The ridges have red terra cotta cresting, of original design. Want of funds has caused the work to be let in many contracts and ordered bit by bit as circumstances appeared to justify; and thus it happens that even at the time of consecration, much that is desirable is still unfinished. Handsome oak chancel stalls and tiling for passages and chancel are still in preparation. A few only of the benches for the nave have been made. It is hoped that funds will soon allow more to be ordered. The temporary gas fittings consist of brackets in the spandrels of the arches above the nave pillars. The heating apparatus is by Messrs Haden. In everything that has been done it has been sought to avoid extravagance but to make everything thoroughly good, solid and substantial. The light is softened by tinted and partially opaque thick glass in two or three colours. Much of the glass is arranged in various geometrical devices suiting the forms of the tracery etc. The attractiveness of the interior is much enhanced by the warmth and cheerfulness imparted by the coloured and diapered brickwork, which has this additional merit, that it will last for very many years without requiring any painting or cleaning. Almost all the purely ornamental and some of the useful features of the building have yet to come, such as the permanent pulpit, the reading desks, the marble shafts, arcaded chancel screen, painted ceiling medallions, stained glass and the steeple. All these have been worked out and provided for in the designs and are to be added as money comes in. The architects are Messrs Medland and Henry Taylor of St Ann's Churchyard, Manchester. [Manchester Guardian Monday February 8, 1869 Page 3 Col 2]

Reference    Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 13 August 1866  Page 3
Reference    Builder 1 September 1866 Page 658
Reference    Builder 20 February 1869 Page 152
Reference    Manchester Guardian. Monday 8 February 1869 Page 3 Column 2 (consecration)
Reference    Axon Annals of Manchester 305
Reference    W.R. Cannell, History of St Gabriel's Church, Hulme, 1869-1929 (1929).