St Mary's Rose Queen.

The following was sent in by David Hamilton.
Over to David....

"Here are some photos of St. Mary's Rose Queen 1961/62, when I was Crown Bearer. The Rose Queen that year was Joan Keighley, daughter of Councillor John Keighley, who lived next to my Grandparents on St. Mary's Road. John Keighley was also at some point, Mayor of Hyde. Joan emigrated to South Africa, and passed away some years ago. I can't name any of the others, I wonder if any of your readers can ?.

At the end of the year I was presented with a copy of the New Testament by the vicar, E. Billington."




Incoming and outgoing Rose Queen

 
Incoming and retiring Rose Queen in church

 
Me in church with New Testament

 
Me in church with one of the Attendants


New Testament. 

 
New Testament presented by E. Billington

 
Rose Queen 1 - Serious work !

 
Rose Queen 2

Many Thanks David.
Excellent, as usual :)  

Newton Lodge

 

Hyde Park, which opened in 1904, was originally the grounds of Newton Lodge, home of Col. CJ Ashton who paid to build St Stephen's Church, Bennett Street. It was given to the town by his daughters, following his death.

The lodge was demolished in 1937. Two years later it was replaced by Bayley Hall which was funded by Sir John Bayley.



Thanks to Tameside.gov for the information

Fun at St Marys

Today we have some lovely photos of years gone by sent in by Marjorie R..

They show various pantomimes from St Marys .

St Mary's Pantomime, Babes in the Wood, 1948.
My sister and I were the Babes.

St Mary's Pantomime, Cinderella, 1949
My father (left) and Arthur Fitton were the Ugly Sisters.

St Mary's Pantomime 1950. Can't remember the title, possibly Mother Goose.
My father is 2nd left.

Thank you, Marjorie.

Your photos are always very gratefully received. :)

UNION STREET - AN APPEAL FOR INFORMATION.

Next year Union Street Congregation Church (now the United Church) will be celebrating its 200th anniversary following its founding in 1814.

The Church is planning to celebrate this important event and would be grateful to know if any of the readers of the Hydoneon Blogspot have any memories, information, photographs, documents, memorabilia etc relating to the history of the Church.

Old family albums may contain photographs of weddings that took place at the Church.  There may be old pictures of Whit Walks in years gone by.  Some readers may have old pantomime programmes or details about social and religious activities.  Or they may just have memories and anecdotes about past events that took place at the Church.

If anyone has pictures and records of the Union Street Football Club, founded by the Church's youth club in 1956 and which went on to become one of Hyde's most successful amateur clubs during the sixties and seventies, those too would be most valuable.

Although there are a few postings about the Church on the site, any additional help, information or artifacts would be gratefully accepted.

If you contact the site, we will ensure that all relevant offers of help and information are passed on to the organisers.

St Thomas the Apostle

A lovely old postcard of St Thomas's Church on Lumn Road.



The church was built in 1868. 
I am happy to say that it is still open although the congregation is much smaller than it used to be. I suppose this is a sign of the times.

The graveyard was declared full during the 1950s.

More history can be found here.


A previous post on St Thomas's

Thank you.

Mystery Photos

Below are two photographs that were taken on Old Road in Flowery Field . You can see Rosemount Church at the top right of the photos.
What we don't know is what the parade was for. We believe they were taken circa late 1970's /early 1980's.

Any ideas? Please let us know !


Love the old United Co-operative Dairies milk float !!

Hyde Central Methodist Church

Services in connection with the Wesleyan Methodism Society appear to have been conducted in Hyde around the year 1811. The services were held in various places, chiefly in private cottages. Early in 1815 a building at the corner of Cross St and Water St was secured. Later in 1821 a larger chapel was built on a plot of land facing Water St, Port St and Milk St. This was later enlarged to incorporate a day and Sunday school for the large increase in children of the rapidly growing cotton trade employees. By 1850 it was necessary to provide a larger building and a plot of land was acquired on Norfolk St.
The opening service at Norfolk St was held on Friday April 18th, 1851. After the opening of the new chapel, the Water St building was used entirely for Sunday and day school purposes.
Fast forward to the 1980's, when it was decided to demolish the old building on Norfolk St and re-build a modern church virtually on the same site. The old building was demolished in 1988 and literally hours later work started on the new church.
A large gathering of members assembled in the pouring rain to see two of the oldest members of the church, Mrs Mollie Dobbs and Mr John Charlton laying the foundation stone. The foundation stone was carved with a clock set at 8-45 pm, the supposed time of John Wesleys conversion to Methodism, along with the words " Praise and Thanksgivings", which appeared on the first Methodist church, built in Bristol in 1739.





The old building on Norfolk Street in the 1980's

Laying the foundation stone for the new church in 1988


The new church in 2012

Rebuilt 1909

Early last year I was walking along  Church Street past St George's Church when I saw an inscription on one of the piers on the church wall which I had not noticed before.

I've been trying since then to find out more about it, even asking one or two people at the recent Heritage Open Day, but with no success, and was going to put this photograph on the blog to see if anyone had any information about it. But I've now found a book in the reference section of Hyde Library written in 1911 by Thomas Middleton and entitled 'History of Hyde (St George's) Church and Schools' which has this to say:

"On November 12^th, 13^th and 14^th, 1908, a Bazaar was opened on the first day by Mrs. Wood, of Glossop; chairman, Dr. Eastham; on the second day, by the Rev. W.G. Bridges, M.A.; chairman Canon Symonds, M.A.; and on the third (children's) day, by Miss Doris Brogden; chairman Master Charles Heywood. The Bazaar Handbook contained a brief history of the Church and Schools, written by Mr. Tom Middleton. The Bazaar realized over £500. With the sum thus raised several improvements were carried out. The Church Tower and West front, and the Church Street School, were re-pointed. A new boundary wall was built on the Church-street side of the graveyard. The old wall, built with the church, in 1832, was a plain structure, 5ft. 6in. high, which prevented the graveyard being seen by anyone standing in the street, The new wall averages about 4 feet in height, is surmounted by stone pier caps and copings, and has handsome iron railings fixed between the piers. By this arrangement a good view of the yard is obtained. On the centre pier are the words – "Rebuilt 1909." Other improvements to the churchyard were also carried out. The better ventilation of the church was also effected. The total cost of all these improvements was £350. The parishioners are indebted to the wardens, Messrs. John Wilde and George Spencer, for the efficient manner in which the whole of the work was supervised."

I assumed that the 'handsome iron railings' had been removed during the Second World War to help build aeroplanes, tanks and ships, but I found several sites on the internet which dispute this and all say similar things to this statement on www.buildingconservation.com:

"Many church railings were removed during World War II, ostensibly to be melted down in a morale-boosting drive to help the war effort. The reality was that the iron could not be reused and more often than not it was simply dumped at sea."

You can see where the iron railings were originally fixed.

National Heritage Weekend - Flowery Field Church

You can tell by the lack of leaves on the trees that this photograph wasn't taken this weekend

The Flowery Field website says this about the building of the church:

'Work commenced on the building of the Church in 1876.

Thomas Worthington FRIBA of Manchester was commissioned to be the Architect. The building is in the Perpendicular or Tudor Gothic style of architecture and is cruciform in shape. There is a separate though connected Tower which rises 81 feet above street level. Work was finished towards the end of 1878 and the Opening Ceremony was held on Thursday 19th December 1878.

Following the Opening Service a Soirée was held in the "Flowery Field Educational Institute" better known today as "the School". At this meeting Mr. Ashton handed over the Trust Deeds of the Church to the Church Officers and also returned the sum of £1000 raised by the congregation, on condition that the money be invested and the interest used to augment a Minister’s stipend.

Thus, by this magnificent gesture, Thomas Ashton actually built the Church at his own expense, handing it to the congregation as a sacred trust and responsibility.'

To the left as you go through the main door, on the wall of the vestibule formed by the church tower, there is a brass plaque dedicating the church to Thomas Ashton and his wife, Elizabeth.'

And amongst the various documents, photographs and other items on display on the open day was this illuminated address given to Mr and Mrs Ashton at the opening of the church.

This is a photograph of the interior of the church from the gallery at the rear.

The church has several striking stained glass windows

The part of the transept to the right in the previous photograph contains the war memorials and this window.

The other side of the transept is the childrens' corner which contains a small altar and this window.

There are three sets of four stained glass windows behind the altar, apparently representing the twelve Apostles. There are names beneath the two bottom ones in each set of four, but the top six don't appear to be named.

Saint Bartholomew and Saint Philip at the bottom

Saint Matthew and Saint Simon at the bottom, Saint Peter on left above

Saint Thomas and (what appears to say) Saint James Minor at the bottom, Saint Andrew on left above

And finally another view of the interior looking towards the tower end of the building from the transept at the childrens' corner.

National Heritage Weekend - St Thomas the Apostle

The leaflet for the Heritage Open Days issued by Tameside Council says this of the Church of St Thomas the Apostle in Lumn Road, Hyde:

'Grade II listed church built in 1868, of brick and stone, by Architect Medland Taylor of Manchester. The roof is unusual in that the architect created a double or extra pitch to the lower elevation. The building is blessed with magnificent stained glass windows by Bourne Jones/William Morris (I think they mean Burne-Jones). The church will be displaying full priest robes and photographs of Priests, May Queens, Servers and more. It is hoped to have information on the Chartist Movement and St Thomas.'

Nancy published a post about the church on 15 April 2011 but I took the opportunity to go and take some interior shots.

View of the interior

The South Window

In the War Memorial Window both figures were designed by Henry Dearle for St Lawrence Church, Bradfield, Essex, to which William Morris & Co supplied a window in 1919. The figure of St George was used in 6 places between 1919 and 1922, and always in War Memorials. The figure of Salvador Mundi was used in at least 15 places and not always in War Memorial windows.

The North Window

The figure of St Thomas was designed for a window of 1874 in Calcutta Cathedral and appears in 6 places in the UK. In the window in Calcutta, St Thomas is shown facing the viewer's left, but in Hyde it has been reversed mirror-wise so as to face right and in two other places (Brighton College Chapel and St Mary Dundee) the figure faces right and has been given a beard. The figure of St Hilda in the Hyde window was a versatile one. It was used originally in 1876 in Paisley Abbey, to represent Salome; but it was also used to represent Eunice, St Anne, Devotion, Phoebe and St Hilda in Hyde and Shrewsbury; but only in Hyde was it modified by the addition of a pastoral staff. The staff does not appear anywhere else.

The East Window

In the East window the figure of Christ as Love is a design which first made its appearance in 1895 in Albion Congregational Church, Ashton-under-Lyne. This Burne-Jones figure makes over 20 appearances in churches up and down the country.The figure of Mary makes at least 25 appearances mainly at representations of the crucifixion.

I am indebted to the website of St Thomas the Apostle for the information about the stained glass windows.

I noticed that this statuette of St Thomas was holding a carpenter's square and checked to see what reference there was to him being a carpenter. I found the following:

'In portraits St Thomas often holds a book as a sign of his apostolate. His primary attribute is most often a carpenter's square or T-square. This refers to the first episode of the Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas where the apostles draw lots to see who will bring the gospels to what countries. When St Thomas draws India, he is reluctant to accept this difficult mission, but Jesus settles the issue by selling him to a royal official just arrived from India looking for a slave skilled in carpentry.'

Two statuettes of Mary and the infant Jesus

And lastly, at the Church of St Thomas the Apostle you don't have to climb a lot of steps up a tower to see the church bell. It's conveniently placed outside the building, though you would need a ladder if you wanted to see it up close!

The History of St Georges Church

 Here is a brief history of St Georges Church as found in the Annals of Hyde which was written by Thomas Middleton.

St Stephens Church for Sale, Bennett Street

A sad day indeed. 
Surplus to requirements, apparently.

Kindly sent to us by David Topping.

Many Thanks, David.