St John, Chorlton cum Hardy

Introduction

St John, Chorlton cum Hardy, in the Diocese of Salford, was opened by Bishop Henshaw in June 1927.

History

The Catholic mission began in 1892 when Prior Jerome Vaughan founded St Peter’s Priory in Woodlea House on Edge Lane. In 1892, Fr Jerome Vaughan established St Peter’s Chapel on Barlow Moor Road.

In 1897 land was bought on Chequers Road and a new school and chapel dedicated to St Augustine were opened in 1898. Fr Frederick Pozzi Holt went on to establish St Augustine’s church on High Lane, which he served, until the appointment of Mgr Joseph Kelly in 1916.

A site for a new church was acquired in 1917 by the Rev Joseph Kelly. The new church dedicated to Our Lady and Saint John the Evangelist was begun in March, 1926.

The new church was built on the site in 1926-1927, largely through the generosity of the John Leeming family. The architect for the new church was Harold Greenhalgh and the contractor was George Powis. The church was built of brick with terracotta dressings by Bispham Hall Terracotta Co of Wigan.

The church was blessed on Saturday, June 11th, 1927 and the first Mass said on that morning. Mr and Mrs John Leeming had bequeathed money to secure the building of the church, so dedicating the church in the name of St John the Evangelist was deemed to be particularly appropriate. The Church of Saint John was built to replace St Augustine’s, which would go on to future uses including as a school and since 2001, St John’s Parish Centre. The parish live streams most of its services on YouTube and Facebook.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of red brick in stretcher bond with cream terracotta dressings, a plinth and slate roofs. The church has a nave with a west gallery, projecting south-west porch and north-west baptistery, and shallow transepts. The sanctuary is flanked by a Sacred Heart Chapel on the north side and Lady Chapel on the south side. The six-bay nave has a hammer-beam roof incorporating pierced tracery with moulded stone corbels.

The entire east wall of the nave and the sanctuary walls, above a timber, enriched, panelled dado, are covered in a mosaic scheme designed by Eric Newton of Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd. The sanctuary has a painted, panelled wagon roof ceiling. The enriched, timber dado incorporates an elaborate Gothic timber reredos with gilded and painted figures depicting the Crucifixion with Christ flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John and angel minstrels, by the firm of Ferdinand Stuflesser. The large west window has a stained glass Assumption by Mayer of Munich. The gallery houses an organ with decorated pipes.

Visiting

The parish supports St John’s ABC, St John’s JFC, the Union of Catholic Mothers and Glor as clubs and societies. The church has a sanctus bell to the rear of the baptistery parapet. The church has a mosaic floor with foliate border in the south porch beneath the gallery. The former baptistery on the north side beneath the gallery has a decorative iron gate and a mosaic floor depicting a banner, water, rushes and water lilies, with an octagonal marble panel where the font originally stood.

The church has a gallery of pitch pine supported on two timber posts with a timber staircase on the south side. The church has a white marble font in the Lady Chapel, supplied by Myeller of Landeck, Austria. The church has a white marble tabernacle and a high altar of white marble with engaged, coloured columns and a central relief scene of the Last Supper. The church has a mosaic floor by Eric Newton that is covered by carpet. The church has a doorway in the east wall of the south transept leading through to the sacristies and the presbytery beyond.