SALFORD HUNDRED 



MANCHESTER 



There are practically no remains of old work in 

 the aisles and chapels of the nave. St. James's chapel, 

 at the east end of the outer north aisle, has entirely 

 disappeared. It was built about 1507, before the 

 present Derby chapel,and originally had a five-light east 

 window, and the plinth of its east wall is said to remain 

 beneath the present floor-level. It was afterwards 

 called the Strangeways chapel, and Hollinworth ''°"' 

 tells us that there was in it a picture of the Resurrec- 

 tion, and beneath it an inscription reciting a pardon 

 of 26,026 days for all who there said five paters, five 

 aves, and a credo. A piscina was found at the south- 

 east angle of the chapel when it was taken down, and 

 has been replaced near its old position. The chapel 

 was narrower than the outer north aisle, but its north 

 wall has now been carried out to the same line as the 

 rest. The Trinity chapel, at the west end of the aisle, 

 has also left no traces of its arrangements. The north 

 porch, built in 1888 in memory of Mr. James Craven, 

 is a very good piece of modern work, with a stone 

 vault in two bays and an upper story used as a muni- 

 ment room, and built entirely of stone ; to the east of 

 the porch is a registry office. 



On the south side of the nave the south wall of the 

 chapel of St. Nicholas, at the south-east, stands on its 

 original line, but has been entirely renewed, and the 

 south porch and south-west baptistery are modern 

 additions. The old south porch stood opposite the 

 fifth bay of the modern arcade. It was of a single 

 story, built in 1685 by one Bibby, and afterwards 

 rebuilt by the parish ; it seems, however, to have 

 retained some 13th-century detail, and the springers 

 of a vault of that date. The present south porch 

 follows in general design the north porch, being 

 vaulted in two bays with a parvise over. 



In St. George's chapel, west of St. Nicholas's 

 chapel, hung an image of St. George, and in HoUin- 

 worth's time the chapel was cdled the RadclifFe chapel ; 

 the arcade on the south side, carrying on the line 

 of the south wall of the chapel of St. Nicholas, is a 

 modern insertion. 



The west tower retains nothing of its old masonry 

 •except its east arch and the wall in which it is set, 

 ornamented with shallow cinquefoiled stone panelling, 

 which is hacked over to make a key for the cement 

 ■coat put on it in 1815 and since removed. The old 

 tower stood till 1863, and was of four stages, 124 ft. 

 high, with a panelled parapet and groups of three 

 pinnacles at each angle, and a smaller pinnacle in the 

 middle of each face. The belfry windows were pairs 

 of two-light openings with transoms and tracery, the 

 -wall over them being panelled in continuation of the 

 tracery, with recesses for images on either side. The 

 west doorway was two-centred with continuous 

 mouldings, and over it was a fine five-light window 

 with a transom and tracery, the buttresses on either 

 :side of the window having canopied niches at this 

 level. The present tower is some 1 5 ft. higher than 

 its predecessor, 139 ft. as against 124 ft., but is other- 

 wise not unlike it, except in the presence of elaborate 

 clock-faces below the belfry stage. Its outline is good, 

 and forms a welcome contrast to its rather prosaic 

 surroundings, the westward fall of the ground adding 



largely to its effect of height. In late years a large 

 porch has been built on to its west face, coming up to 

 the street frontage. The general exterior of the 

 church at the present time is so much disfigured by 

 its blackness that it is difficult to appreciate its good 

 points. The same building set in a clean country 

 town would command a great deal of admiration, but 

 here it has to pay the penalty of its position in a great 

 manufacturing city. With the interior, however, 

 the case is different, and the dull light often adds 

 immensely to the dignity of the nave, with its four 

 ranges of columns and richly carved roofs. Some of 

 the modern glass in the nave clearstory is of very fine 

 colour, and the magnificent quire stalls and screen 

 would be imposing in any church. The nave was 

 formerly full of galleries, the oldest being on the south 

 side, set up in 1 61 7 by Humphrey Booth. The 

 Strangeways gallery on the north, and the Chetham 

 gallery on the west, were both made in 1660, and in 

 1698 another at the north-west was added. The 

 last of the galleries was removed in 1884, to the great 

 benefit of the general effect. 



A little old glass in the east window of the chapter- 

 house is all that is left of what must once have been a 

 very rich adornment. There are figures of our Lady, 

 St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. George, and a few smaller 

 pieces. Some glass from the cathedral is now in 

 the chancel of Messingham Church, Lines. A good 

 deal was surviving in the 1 7th century, and Hollin- 

 worth mentions St. Michael and angels in the east 

 window of the south aisle, and St. Augustine and 

 St. Ambrose in the corresponding window on the 

 north : presumably the quire aisles are meant. At the 

 ' uppermost end of the outmost north ally,' near 

 St. James's chapel, was a window with the Trinity 

 and the Crucifixion.**^ 



The church has lost most of the many monuments 

 which it formerly possessed, such as the two alabaster 

 effigies of Radcliffes mentioned by HoUinworth on 

 the north side of the quire. Warden Huntington's 

 brass, 1458, formerly in the middle of the quire, was 

 afterwards put in a vault below, but in 1907 was 

 replaced in the quire, and retains his figure in Mass 

 vestments, with the very fitting inscription on a scroll, 

 ' Domine dilexi decorem domus tuae.' Warden 

 Stanley's brass has been already mentioned, and in the 

 chapter-house is a triangular brass plate surrounded 

 by shields of arms, commemorating the Ordsalls of 

 Ordsall Hall."*'* An interesting but quite modern 

 seated figure of Humphrey Chetham, founder of the 

 hospital and library, set up in 1853, is at the east 

 end of the north aisle of the quire, and in the south 

 aisle is a copper plate in a carved oak frame to Warden 

 Heyrick, 1667. On the back of the north range of 

 quire stalls are fastened two brass plates to Antony 

 Mosley, 1607, and Oswald Mosley, 1630, and there 

 are a number of good 18th-century monuments in 

 various parts of the church. There are recent 

 monuments to Hugh Birley, M.P. for Manchester, 

 Thomas Fleming, 1852, and Dean Maclure. Two 

 early sculptured stones were found during the 

 restorations, and there are brasses in the chapter-house 

 and library.""' 



261b Maticmiemis, 1656. 



M2 See a paper by Rev. H. A. Hudson in 

 Proc. Lanes, and Ches.Atitiq, Soc. xxv { 1 907). 



262a Foj the Radcliffe brasses see Proc. 

 Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. ix, 90. 



268 See Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), 

 xiv, 205, for notes taken between 1591 

 and 1636 5 Thornely, Lanes, and Ches. 

 Brasses^ 15, 39, 113 ; and Lanes, and Ches, 

 Antiq. Soc. xxiii, 172, for the ancient 



191 



sculpture of St. Michael. There are 

 copies of monumental inscriptions and 

 gravestones in the interior and the grave- 

 yard in the Owen MSS. 



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