Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Blackley

Introduction

Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Blackley was built between 1906 and 1908 to designs by J Bernard Holt in a Perpendicular Gothic style. The church is historically associated with a mission established in Blackley in 1851.

History

A Catholic mission was established in Blackley in 1851 in a chapel formed from two cottages. By 1898 the priest was the Revd Robert Hayes who went on to build a new church, presbytery and schools. The first building was a large presbytery dated 1904 fronting onto a new road called Wilson Road. The architect for the new church, and perhaps the presbytery, was J Bernard Holt, a Manchester architect who designed a number of Roman Catholic churches.

The church was opened in September 1908. During the period between the opening of the new church and 1940 four other parishes were formed from parts of the original parish.

The church was reordered in 1965 by Greenhalgh & Williams who remodelled the sanctuary with new marble steps, floors and decoration; the high altar ensemble remained intact. The church also contains mosaic work which may be by Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd, established in 1865 in Manchester.

The church has a stone cross placed into the wall of the High Altar to keep away the 'Boggarts' and to protect the church. The parish is part of St Chad's Deanery and form part of The Salford Roman Catholic Diocese.

Mount Carmel has a small but growing youth group. Mount Carmel piety stall provides religious goods to support all aspects of the parish ministry.

The parish has a Sacramental Programme Catechists team. Baptisms are arranged by appointment only.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of red brick with stone dressings and slate roofs. At the gable apex is a statue niche containing a statue of Our Lady and the baby Christ. The interior has a seven-bay nave and two-bay sanctuary with panelled wagon roof ceilings with trusses in the approximate form of hammer-beam trusses. The arcades are faced with grey marble above the arches with mosaic roundels of saints in the spandrels.

The marble altar has bas-relief panels with three gilded shields. There is a forward-placed marble altar and lectern relating to the 1965 reordering. There is an organ on the gallery with gilded pipes. The church has a corner tower and battlemented turret and battlemented parapets to the impressively tall nave. The choir meets for practice on Thursday evenings at Mount Carmel Church.

Notable people and events

The east window was by the Hardman firm in memory of the Revd Hayes who died in 1926. Father Hayes died in 1926 as a result of a fall in church and is commemorated in the large stained glass window behind the High Altar.