SALFORD HUNDRED 



ECCLES 



with a priest's door with a pointed head and hood- 

 mould in the south-west corner. 



It is possible that the south arcade of the nave was 

 rebuilt at the same time as the south aisle was en- 

 larged, but this would mean that the work then 

 executed was taken down within forty or fifty years. 

 It is more likely that the original north and south 

 arcade stood till the beginning of the 1 6th century, 

 when the great rebuilding of the church commenced. 103 

 The south arcade was the first to be taken down, and 

 was reconstructed with a lofty clearstory on the same 

 line. The north arcade was afterwards pushed out 

 5 ft. to the north, bringing the north aisle wall flush 

 with the wall of the north chapel of the chancel, and 

 throwing the tower out of centre with the nave. 

 Whether there had been a chancel arch before this 

 date it is impossible to say, but the chancel seems to 

 have been reconstructed without one at this time or 

 shortly after, and similarly widened to the north. The 

 evidence of this was much more plain before the re- 

 building of 1862-3 by the way in which the roof of 

 the old chancel cut into that of the north chapel. 11 The 

 axis of the chancel is twisted about 1 8 in. to the south, 

 but whether this took place during the 16th-century 

 rebuilding, or was so originally, there is nothing to 

 show, and the south arcade of the chancel may be on 

 the exact line of the former one. The only fixed 

 point in the church through the various rebuildings 

 seems to be the south pier between the chancel and 

 nave, though this of course was only built in its 

 present form in the 16th-century reconstruction. 

 The arches and piers of the chancel are similar to 

 those of the nave, but the arches are much wider and 

 higher, leaving no space for the clearstory like that 

 of the nave, unless the roof were taken very much 

 higher. But the unfinished end of the nave roof as 

 shown in old views of the church seems to suggest 

 that it was intended to carry it on over the chancel, 

 the two octagonal turrets alone marking the division 

 of nave and chancel on the outside. 



The building as finished in the first part of the 

 1 6th century remained more or less intact until 1801 

 when the taking down of the east end was begun 

 prior to reconstruction. Many alterations, however, 

 took place in the interior between these two dates, 

 the first in I 595, when new pews and forms were set 

 up. At this date, too, there were 'repairs to the 

 church,' which probably included the insertion of much 

 of the window tracery. In 1713 the church was 

 ' beautified,' and in 1715 the vestry, which had 

 been in the south aisle of the chancel, was removed 

 to the west end under the tower. In 17173 west 

 gallery was ordered to be erected, and at the same 

 time or shortly after the building was again thoroughly 

 repaired. The roof was releaded in 1719. In 1770 

 north and south galleries were ordered to be erected, 

 and in 1 790 the south porch was restored. A gallery 



was erected at the east end of the nave in 1803 ex- 

 cluding any view of the chancel, but this was removed 

 in 1862. The other galleries still remain. There were 

 further repairs in 1832, 1846, 1854, and 1856, the 

 nave roof being repaired and the lead recast, new 

 roofs constructed to the aisles, and the old flagged 

 floor relaid. 11 * In 18623 the east end was entirely 

 rebuilt and a small clearstory of three triangular-shaped 

 lights added to the chancel walls. The work com- 

 prised the reconstruction of the chancel with its north 

 and south aisles, the addition of a vestry on the north, 

 and an organ chamber on the south, and the rebuild- 

 ing of St. Katherine's Chapel, which had long been 

 destroyed. 1 * Three large circular 18th-century win- 

 dows, formerly lighting the south gallery, were built 

 up at this time, but their position may still be seen 

 from the inside. The organ, formerly in the west 

 gallery, was transferred to the chamber on the south 

 side of the south chancel aisle and remained there till 

 1890, when a new one was erected on screens in the 

 first and second bay on each side of the chancel, and 

 the organ chamber turned into a vestry. At the same 

 time the vestry on the north was converted to its 

 present use. The organ chamber seems to have been 

 erected prior to the rebuilding of St. Katherine's 

 Chapel, as its west wall was built as an outside wall, 

 as may be seen by the diagonal buttress and the 

 blocked-up windows on that side. St. Katherine's 

 Chapel, which is supposed to be on the site of the 

 original chantry chapel, now forms a south transept. 



The church is built of friable red sandstone, which 

 had decayed so badly that an almost complete refacing 

 of the old part became necessary in 1907. The work 

 was completed in 1908, and very little of the exterior 

 detail is now left. The interior was, till 1 875, covered 

 with an accumulated coat of limewash, but was then 

 stripped and all its stonework cleaned. Externally 

 the walls of the nave and aisles have battlemented 

 parapets and the roofs are covered with lead. The 

 aisles have lean-to roofs with a straight parapet on their 

 west end. The walls of the chancel, south chapel 

 and aisle, and transept also terminate in battlements, 

 and the vestry has a stepped gable on the south side. 

 The roofs of the chancel and chancel aisles are 

 covered with slates, but those of the vestry and transept 

 are leaded. The south aisle of the chancel has a lean-to 

 roof, but the roof of the north aisle retains its original 

 gable form. 



The chancel is 43 ft. long by 23 ft. 6 in. wide and 

 has north and south arcades of two bays with centre 

 pier and east and west responds. The arches are 

 1 6 ft. 6 in. wide, and there is a piece of straight wall 

 at the east end 46. long. The columns and arches 

 are similar to those in the nave, but the capitals are 

 slightly different. The first bay from the west on 

 each side is filled with a modern screen with an organ 

 over and a similar screen partly fills the eastern bay. 



loa Robert Langley of Agccroft in 1525 

 bequeathed 6 1 3*. \d. to the building of 

 the parish church of Our Lady of Eccles, 

 to be paid as the work went on ; Willt 

 (Rec. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 62. 



See Owen MSS. 



lla An account printed in the Manch. 

 Advertiser, 24 Oct. 1846, gives a melan- 

 choly description of the state to which the 

 building had been reduced ; for example : 

 Over the chancel is a huge, unsightly 

 gallery, in which the people turn their 



backs to the altar, and above this, in the 

 place of the ancient rood screen, is a re- 

 presentation of the royal arms' ; the 

 gallery had lately been erected ' by the lay 

 rector, Sir John Heathcote, of Longton 

 Hall, Staffs., who had sold the pews to 

 different holders.' There were still ' some 

 very rude massive oaken benches in the 

 nave ' which remained in their primitive 

 condition, but surrounded by high pews ; 

 and ' near the door of the south porch was 

 a very ancient alms box having three dis- 



355 



tinct locks.' On a board was painted the 

 information that ' This church was beau- 

 tified in the year 1713.' Baines {Lanes. 

 iii, 115) states that the ancient gates 

 leading to the chancel remained until 

 1803 ; this was the year in which the 

 chancel gallery was erected. 



18 Old views of the south side of the 

 church show the arch to St. Katherine's 

 Chapel as an external feature, the lower 

 part built up and the upper part used as a 

 window. 



