Hulme: St Mary
Overview
Grid reference: SJ 833 960
It is interesting to discover here an assurance in the handling of ambitious forms and careful details which make this church an outstanding example of the Early Second Pointed style of the Gothic Revival and which were to last throughout the architect's career. There are, moreover, essential features of design in such matters as proportions of arcades, the preference for tall, wide chancel arches, and the steep pitch of the roof slopes which can be paralleled in St. Benedict's Ardwick, of nearly thirty years later. Yet the handling of materials, stone and plaster in the former and brick and stone in the latter, is quite different.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Five-bay nave with aisles, north-west tower and spire in the position of the west bay of the north aisle; north and south porches. Three-bay the chancel with aisles.
Description of Archaeology and History
By Joseph Stretch Crowther, who died in 1893; one of his earlier works, St. Mary's Hulme was built in 1856-8.
Exterior Description
It is interesting to discover here an assurance in the handling of ambitious forms and careful details which make this church an outstanding example of the Early Second Pointed style of the Gothic Revival and which were to last throughout the architect's career. There are, moreover, essential features of design in such matters as proportions of arcades, the preference for tall, wide chancel arches, and the steep pitch of the roof slopes which can be paralleled in St. Benedict's Ardwick, of nearly thirty years later. Yet the handling of materials, stone and plaster in the former and brick and stone in the latter, is quite different.
To begin with the tower, this rises from the western bay of the of north aisle, and is suitably large in scale to rise well above the ridge of the nave roof before the spire begins. The tower itself is divided by stringcourses into five stages externally. The lowest contains windows to the north and west and the next stage is blind. Then comes the ringing chamber, with small lancets to north and west and above the aisle roof on the east. The chamber above this has small windows to the north and west and then comes the belfry itself. The big paired bell-openings are grouped under triangular gablets copied from Newark parish church (just as the Francis brothers did at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, only two years before). There are now no louvres (although signs of their fixing remain) and the gaunt openings which result lend steeple its own individual character. At this level the slender buttresses which are grouped in pairs at the corners have small gablets and become, almost imperceptibly octagonal to carry the big crocketted pinnacles at the corners of the parapet. The well surface between the bell-openings and the parapets has finely carved blind tracery as ornament, and the parapet rests on a corbel table of ball-flowers. Small stone stays attach the pinnacles to the broaches of the spire, and there are in addition iron stays higher up.
The spire is octagonal, with slender and elegant broaches at the corners between the points of which are the lowest tier of lucarnes, two light openings with a quatrefoil above all under a sharply pointed gablet. One of the most striking features of this soaring design is that there are no less than four tiers of lucarnes, following the more elaborate mediaeval examples of Northamptonshire which Crowther and Bowman had illustrated, their position alternating between the cardinal and intermediate faces. All the lucarnes are of two lights save the topmost tier. High above the tip of the spire is a weathercock. The recent cleaning of the whole exterior of the church in 1973 has brought the limestone facing back to its natural colour.
The chancel, only slightly lower than the nave, is distinguished from it externally by big crocketted pinnacles (also found at Bury) at the level of the aisle parapets and the parapets of the main walls, the latter more elaborate than the former. These are practical as well as decorative, for they cap four staircases which give access from the floor of the church to the parapet gutters. The chancel is the same width as the nave, and three tall bays with aisles which run through to the eastern wall. These continue the design of the nave aisles with only small differences, save that in one bay of the south is a small doorway and on the north is a doorway contrived under a buttress, a remarkably authentic detail. The clerestory window is of two lights, one bay but set in arcading between two blind arches, again an example of the care taken to avoid bleak expanses of unarticulated wall space. The enormous east window (which is even larger than the nave west window) is of six lights grouped in pairs of three. Each pair has a circle with three trefoils in it above and the main tracery is a big twelve-spoked wheel, the whole representing an expansion of a much smaller window in the south wall of the monastery church at Temple (also used, it seems, by Goodwin as a basis for some of his designs executed in iron). The triple Triangles within the small circles are taken from a window at Temple Balsall next to that used for the basic plan and the wheel.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
1862
The east window is of six lights and contains eighteen Scenes from the Life of Christ with angels and various symbols in the tracery lights.
Stained Glass
1877
South aisle east: Six Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Mary.
Stained Glass
c.1877
South aisle I: Christ in Majesty.
Stained Glass
c.1866
South aisle II: Parable of the Talents.
Stained Glass
c.1879
South aisle III: Christ with the Children.
Stained Glass
c.1868
South aisle IV: Christ with Martha and Mary flanked by Dorcas and an unnamed saint.
Stained Glass
1892
South Aisle V: Christ Teaching and Healing, by Lavers and Westlake
Stained Glass
1894
South aisle IV: Christ at the Fountain of the Water of Life.
Stained Glass
1769
South aisle VII: St. Peter, St. John and St. James, signed by William Peckitt of York, and dated 1769, this window is made of lights saved from St. John, St. John's Square, Manchester.
Stained Glass
1885
South sisle west: Christ in Majesty
Stained Glass
1915
Nave west window: The Tree of Jesse.
Stained Glass
1861
North aisle west: panel of the Virgin and Child.
Stained Glass
1862
North aisle I: Baptism of Christ
Stained Glass
North aisle IV: Moses, Enoch and Aaron, in memory of Charles Wordham, first Rector, d.1905
Stained Glass
c.1865
North aisle V: The Prodigal Son, The Pharisee and The Publican, St. Peter and the Crowing Cock.
Stained Glass
North aisle VI: Three scenes from the Life of Christ.
Stained Glass
Six chancel clerestory windows: figures of winged angels by Hardman.
Interior
Interior Description
The conception of the interior is equal to the scale of the building. The piers of the nave arcades are octagonal, with moulded bases and capitals, and the arches which these carry are of two simple chamfered orders outlined by a moulded hood terminating in head stops above each pier. In the spandrels are roundels painted in a pre-Raphaelite style with various subjects, which seem to be the only surviving part of a more comprehensive scheme of decorative painting now obliterated. The west bay of the north aisle is set apart by the thicker pier forming the south-east support of the tower, simply a massive square block of stone reaching to the wall-head in place of the octagonal pier, and the area enclosed behind this forms the baptistery with the font placed centrally. The clerestory has shafted reveals with moulded rere-arches and the principles of the steeply-pitched roof rest on plain corbels. These support hammerbeams carved to represent angels holding musical instruments, very large and with silded wings. The ambitious design suggests that Crowther may have been trying to the emulate Hansom's great church of St. Walburge, Preston, completed just before work began at Hulme. The short tie-beams are placed as high as possible to emphasise again the height of the building, and there are wind-braces between the principals and purlins.
The chancel arch marks a distinct change in style for now all the main piers are shafted rather than simply octagonal, and the chancel arch itself has five shafts on each respond attached at three points by rings. It is very tall and very wide, the arch above being composed of three plainly chamfered orders.
The three-bay arcades on the north and south sides of the chancel are carried on octagonal piers with attached shafts at each angle, all with moulded capitals and bases. The centre arch on the north contains the pipework of a massive organ, which is not the original position since the eastern bay of this aisle, separated from the chancel by a stone screen pierced in the lower part by three arches on round shafts and in the upper by a big cusped octofoil which now forms the vestry. The organ in its present form now detracts from the appearance of the chancel by projecting rather too far and upsetting the careful symmetry of Crowther's design. The south aisle, although it has stained glass in the east window represating the subjects which suggest a Lady Chapel is called a vestry by The Ecclesiologist and indeed still is so. The chancel roof is plainer than the nave but with gilded heads along the wall-plate and with gilded bosses at the intersections of principals and purlins. The aisles, as in the nave, have spandrels filled with pierced Geometrical tracery which is one of the most handsome examples of Crowther careful attention to detail, linking as it does with the window tracery, the blind tracery on the exterior of the tower and the tracery of the former chancel screen. The floors in the chancel and nave alleys are composed of stone flags with tiles in the sanctuary, the levels carefully arranged in the proper places which satisfied The Ecclesiologist. The coloured tiles whose absence was deplored have since been provided. Virtually all the windows in the church, save two in the north aisle and all those of the nave clerestory, are filled with stained glass.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
The altar is of oak, with ringed pillars along the front and an inlaid white marble mensa in the centre surrounded by conescration crosses inlaid in paler wood at the corners.
Altar
c.1930
The nave altar is also of oak, but much more modern (c.1930) with traceried panels in front and a central relief of the Agnus Dei.
Reredos
The reredos seems not to be in its original form, since the frame looks to have been simplified. The three painted panels, however, representing Christ Reigning from the Cross adored by the Virgin Mary and St. John with six other Saints and surrounded by musician angels and censing angels all on gold backgrounds, are of excellent quality.
Pulpit
c.1900
The pulpit is of pale oak, octagonal with small figures of Our Lord, the Four Evangelists and (it seems) St. Paul under ogee crocketted canopies.
Lectern
The lectern is a fine piece in brass and iron, a twisted brass column with intermediate ring and the desk supported on brass scrolls above a corona of iron leaves.
Font (object)
The font has an octagonal bowl on eight marble colonettes and a central drum, the panels of the bowl decorated with two alternating designs of traceried windows.
Churchyard
Grid reference: SJ 833 960
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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