Before coming to the shop floor, we share a little history and some photographs of our most recent salvage site – Particular Baptist Chapel. Currently lying idle on Rochdale Road, it is the third church to be sculpted on the site within the historic Angel Meadow district.
Take a look through photographs from Laurence’s recent visit for a sneak preview of what’s to come to Insitu.
Before the chapel’s current namesake and structure , it was was known as ‘St. George’s Road Chapel’ and was a part of a road that was once the main thoroughfare through the North of Manchester c.1840. Where it was witness to troubles between the Orangemen of Manchester (an Irish Protestant and political society) and the Catholic Irish. Occurring a day after their annual 12th of July parade, which celebrates the military victory of the Protestant King William over the Catholic monarch King James, when the Orangemen were attacked after their divine service by several hundred Catholics armed with sticks and stones. Later on that day, more trouble occurred by the local Windmill pub and an attempt to kill the sexton of the chapel.
With such Baptist spaces characterised as a catalyst to generate a ‘chiliasm of despair’ by E.P. Thompson, the current building built in 1907 is now shadowed under the modernised area. With the decline of chapel worship, this once popular chapel able to hold thousands, no longer has the support it needs to maintain itself with costly building repairs and upkeep. However, taking the time to wander around the space you would notice the stunning interior features, where according to art historian Pevsner, some of which were salvaged from the previous ecclesiastical structures.
For more chapel content, here is a short film from Urban Legends UK from their visit last year.
More News
- Stories Behind the Salvage – Edition 03
- Stories Behind the Salvage – Edition 02
- Stories Behind the Salvage – Edition 01
