A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The infirmary and dispensary, originally established 

 in 1832, is now housed at the north side of the town, 

 a new building having been given in 1883 and en- 

 larged in 1896 and again in 1907.'* Other public 

 buildings in the town include union offices, county 

 court offices, county police court, Temperance hall, 

 Central hall, used for entertainments, and theatre. 

 The 2nd V.B. Lancashire Fusiliers has its head quarters 

 at Rochdale ; there is a troop of yeomanry. 



The church of ST. CHAD consists of 

 CHURCH chancel with north and south aisles, nave 

 with north and south aisles, south porch 

 and west tower, with a vestry at the west end of each 

 aisle north and south of the tower. It is finely placed 

 on high ground about 80 ft. above the river, on the 

 south side of the town, and is gained on the north 

 side by a flight of 1 24 steps. These steps, recon- 

 structed in 1 8 1 o, were probably in existence in some 

 form in the iyth century. 76 



The site is an ancient one," but the oldest part of 

 the present church belongs to the 1 3th century, though 

 fragments of Norman masonry are said to have been 

 discovered in the renovation of 1815." Whatever 

 the earliest church may have been, the structure 

 seems to have been entirely rebuilt on a large scale 

 during the I3th century, the present nave pillars 

 being of that date and probably in their original 

 position. Of the 13th-century chancel no traces 

 now remain, but it was apparently the same width as 

 the nave, and of three bays or more in length. 79 

 The church of this date would apparently be not 

 very much less in area than the building as it existed 

 previous to the modern additions at the east end, and 

 consisted of a chancel 1 9 ft. 6 in. wide and about 

 35 ft. long, nave of equal width and 60 ft. long, with 

 north and south aisles, and probably a western tower. 80 

 The first change seems to have been the rebuilding 

 of the tower in the I4th century, but whether any 

 other work was done at this time, or whether the 

 13th-century church stood down to the middle part 

 of the 1 6th century, it is impossible to say. Trinity 

 Chapel on the south side of the chancel existed 

 in 1487, and the chapel of St. Katherine on the 

 north side was founded probably about the same 

 time or a little earlier (it is mentioned in 1514), 

 and it is likely that many other changes had 

 been effected in the structure before the middle of 

 the 1 6th century when (c. 1558) the greater part 

 was rebuilt, the piers to the nave and chancel and the 

 west tower alone being retained. This building 

 stood substantially without change till the beginning 

 of the 1 9th century. 81 



In 1815 the building was in a ruinous condition, 

 but a proposal to take it down and rebuild it was 



abandoned in favour of restoration. 81 The work then 

 done was supplemented in 1835 by a further re- 

 storation of the interior, 83 and again in 18545 when 

 the north aisle was taken down and rebuilt, the 

 galleries removed (a new west gallery, however, was 

 erected), and the organ, which had been in the west 

 gallery, transferred to the east end of the north aisle, 

 which was extended so as to be flush with the east 

 end of the chancel. The vestry, which then occu- 

 pied the site of St. Katherine's Chapel north of the 

 quire, was transferred to the west end of the north 

 aisle, and the north aisle of the chancel was opened 

 out. The chief work of rebuilding, however, was 

 not begun till 1873, when the south aisle as far as 

 the chancel, together with the south porch, was pulled 

 down and rebuilt, and the tower raised by the 

 addition of a lofty belfry and otherwise altered. In 

 1885 the chancel was entirely reconstructed 84 and 

 extended, along with both north and south aisles, 

 2 5 ft. eastward, all traces of the old work being lost. 

 The whole of the east end of the church and nearly 

 all the work on the exterior of the building are there- 

 fore modern, and apart from the nave arcade and the 

 lower part of the tower the building has little anti- 

 quarian interest. 



The church is built of wrought stone, but on the 

 north side is faced with parpoints, and the walls in 

 the interior are plastered. The east gable has a plain 

 coping with cross and angle pinnacles, and the walls 

 to chancel, nave, and aisles have embattled parapets. 

 The chancel roof is slightly higher than that of the 

 nave, and both are covered with green slates, while 

 those of the aisles are lean-to roofs covered with 

 lead. 



The chancel consists of six bays with an arcade of 

 pointed arches, on clustered shafts open to the north 

 and south aisles. It has a lofty clearstory of six 

 square-headed three-light windows on each side, and 

 a rich double hammer-beam roof with angel termina- 

 tions. The quire stalls occupy the first four bays 

 from the west, those to the first and second bays being 

 old. The sixth bay contains the sanctuary, the fifth 

 being open at each side to the aisles. The whole of 

 the east end of the church being new possesses no 

 antiquarian interest except in certain fittings afterwards 

 mentioned, but it is a very good example of modern 

 Gothic. The extent of the former north and south 

 aisles is marked on the outside by diagonal buttresses, 

 and on the inside by a slight break in the wall. At 

 the west end of the north aisle an organ-chamber was 

 built in 1886, projecting northwards in front of the 

 old St. Katherine's Chapel, which is now lost, but 

 originally the wall ran straight through. Trinity 

 Chapel, on the south side of the chancel, now occupies 



75 For the older charitable societies, see 

 Baines, Lanes, i, 501. 



76 The churchwardens' accounts for 

 1660 contain an item of 241. for eight 

 loads of 'great stones from Blackstone 

 edge for the steps.' Fishwick, Rochdale 

 at the beginning of the I -jtb century (Hist. 

 Soc. Lanes, and Ches. xxxviii). 



77 There is a local version of the well- 

 known story of the stones having been 

 carried up the hill-side from a proposed 

 site on lower ground by supernatural 

 agency. The legend is used by Roby in 

 his Goblin Builders. 



78 Fishwick, Hist, of Rochdale, 12. 



79 So much alteration was done in later 



years that the length of the original 13th- 

 century chancel cannot be accurately 

 stated. There were three arches and 

 columns similar to those of the nave in 

 1863 (John Owen MSS. in Manch. Ref. 

 Lib.), but these did not extend the full 

 length eastward. There was a good deal 

 of alteration in the north arcade of the 

 chancel in 1854. 



80 Glynne (no date) states that when 

 he visited the church there was a range 

 of ' lancet arches upon imposts, which 

 seem Early English,' in the east wall of 

 the tower facing the nave. 



81 Changes in the I7th century were : 

 1635, chancel repaired ; 1646, south porch 



194 



repaired; 1693, west gallery erected; 1699, 

 south gallery erected ; 1700, south porch 

 rebuilt ; Fishwick, Rochdale at beginning of 

 i jtb century (Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., 

 xxxviii). 



82 24 July 1816, Sir Jeffrey Wyatt, 

 architect, reported to the Bishop of Ches- 

 ter that he had made a survey of the 

 church and found the repairs done in a 

 workmanlike manner. 



88 These repairs included the rebuilding 

 of the wall of the Trinity Chapel, repairs 

 to the roof, and the removal of the gallery 

 then existing at the east end in front of the 

 rood screen. The screen remained till 1854. 



84 J. S. Crowther, architect. 



