St Stephen's Church School, Worsley Road, Swinton

ST STEPHEN’S NEW CHURCH, SWINTON Yesterday morning – being St Stephen’s Day – the first sod of a new school church to be dedicated to St Stephen at Swinton, was cut on a plot of land situate off the Market Place. The new building, which is being erected in connection with St Peter’s Swinton, of which the Rev H R Heywood is the Vicar, is intended by the Churchmen of that parish as a parochial Jubilee memorial, and will take the place of an existing school, which has become too small for the growing requirements of the district. The cost of the schools will be about £2,000, and towards this sum £900 has been promised and subscribed, and the preparation of the plans has been entrusted to Mr H Lord, architect of this city. At some future time it is proposed to erect a new church on the land. The ceremony of cutting the first sod was performed by Mr Noah Robinson, who had been churchwarden at St Peters for over twenty years, and is a guardian and overseer for Worsley. Prior to the ceremony he stated that the average attendance at St Peter’s day schools in 1865 was 270, in 1876-77 it had increased to 481 and in 1886-87 the average attendance had reached 1,070. The attendance at other denominational schools in the parish last year was 576. In the afternoon a loan exhibition in St Peter’s School-room was opened by Mr Andrew Knowles of Swinton Old Hall to raise funds on behalf of the new schools. There was a large attendance of visitors including Sir John I Mantell, the Rev H R Heywood, Mr Oliver Heywood of Claremont, Mr John Knowles, Westwoods, Swinton, Mr Lees Knowles MP, Mr Noah Robinson and others. [Manchester Courier 27 December 1887 page 6]

The schools were situated on Worsley Road near its junction with the A6 and was closed in the 1960s, St Stephen’s Court, 6 Worsley Road now occupies the site.

Reference    Manchester Guardian 27 December 1887 page 7
Reference    Manchester Courier 27 December 1887 page 6