A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



1833 Peter Hordern, M.A/' (Brasenose Coll. 



Oxf.) 

 1836 John Morton, B.D. 

 1843 William Birley, M.A. 

 1859 John Edmund Booth, M.A." (Brasenose 



Coll. Oxf.) 

 1893 Francis Edward Thomas, M.A.^' 



(Magdalene Coll. Camb.) 



A new church, St. Werburgh's, was consecrated in 

 1902 ; the Crown and the Bishop of Manchester have 

 the patronage alternately. 



Methodism was introduced in 1770. The Wes- 

 leyan Methodists opened a chapel in 1805, rebuilt 

 and enlarged it in 1827, and replaced It by another 

 in 1872." They have now two churches in the 

 township, and the Primitive Methodists also have one. 



The Baptists, the Congregationalists," and the 

 Presbyterian Church of England" each have a place 

 of worship. The Unitarians also have a church, built 

 in 1 90 1." 



The Roman Catholic Church of St. Augustine was 

 opened in 1892. It was first known as St. Peter's 

 Priory, of the Gregorian Order, but in 1896 was 

 handed over to the secular clergy." 



MOSS SIDE 



The principal part of this township' lies to the 

 north of Withington ; there are two small detached 

 portions to the east, viz. on the north-west and north- 

 east corners of Rusholme.' The total area is 421 

 acres. The whole is now urban, and forms an in- 

 distinguishable part of Manchester. Whalley Range 

 lies on the south-west border.' The population in 

 1 90 1 was 26,677. 



A local board was formed in 1856,* and became an 

 urban district council in 1894, but the district was 

 taken into the city of Manchester in 1904. The 

 township contains a free library.' 



Pepper Hill Farm, the scene of the opening chap- 

 ters of Mrs. Gaskell's Mary Barton, stood in the main 

 portion of the township until 1900, when it was 



taken down. The site forms part of the Westwood 

 Street Recreation Ground. . 



Several relics of the Stone Age have been found in 

 and near Moss Side. 



There was no manor of MOSS SIDE, 

 MANOR and the development of the township a 

 obscure. Judging from the later owner- 

 ship the main portion and the nearest of the detached 

 parts were once included in the estates of the Prest- 

 wiches of Hulme, for they were, in the latter part of 

 the 18 th century, held by the Lloyds. The eastern 

 detached portion, lying near the Stockport Road, may 

 have been the estate formerly known as Holt in Rus- 

 holme.° Edmund Prestwich, who died in 1 5 77, held 

 messuages and lands in 'Withenshaw' of Nicholas 

 Longford in socage, by a rent of 3/. ^d. ; this is prob- 

 ably the Moss Side estate of the family.' 



The TrafFords and others also held lands in Moss 

 Side,' but there seems no way of distinguishing their 

 estate here from other lands held by them of the lords 

 of Withington ; some, or all, of their land In the 

 Yeeldhouses was no doubt In Moss Side, as traces of 

 the name remained till recently.' 



George Lloyd, representing in his estate the Prest- 

 wiches, paid over half the land tax in 1797 ; the 

 other estates in the township were but small.'" 



A large number of places of worship have been 

 built in the township during the last half-century. la 

 connexion with the Established Church are Christ 

 Church, 1850," rebuilt 1 899-1904, with a mission 

 room; St. James's, 1888; also, at Whalley Range, 

 St. Margaret's, 1849," and St. Edmund's, 1882." 

 The Bishop of Manchester collates the rector ot 

 St. James's ; the other benefices are in the hands of 

 the Simeon and other trustees. 



The following also have churches : The Primitive 

 Methodists, Wesleyans (at Whalley Range), Congre- 

 gationalists. Baptists," Welsh Calvinistic Methodists," 

 Church of United Friends, Salvation Army, and 

 Swedenborglans (New Jerusalem). 



The Presbyterian Church of England at Whalley 

 Range dates from 1849 ; the present church was 

 built in 1886. 



There is no Roman Catholic church, but the 

 nursing sisters of St. Joseph have a house at Whalley 

 Range. 



** Also Chetham Librarian. 



50 Previouslyincumbentof St. Stephen's, 

 Salford. 



5^ Previously vicar of Tongc Moor. 



™ Booker, op. cit. 301, 302. 



5" It is called the Macfadyen Memorial 

 Church. 



" Founded 1904. 



"The congregation dates from 1891, 

 and therefore has no connexion with 1 7th- 

 century Nonconformity. In 1689 Wil- 

 liam Broome's barn in Chorlton was 

 licensed for a dissenting minister, Thomas 

 Kynaston ; Hht. MSS. Com. Rep. xiv, App. 

 iv, 23Z. Kynaston was from about that 

 time minister at Knutsford. In 17 18 a 

 quarter of the small population was Presby- 

 terian ; Gastrell, Notilia, ii, 83. 



»« Kelly, Engl. Cath. Missions. 



^ An exhaustive account of Old Moss 

 Side has been compiled by Mr. Henry 

 Thomas Crofton (Manch. 1903). The 

 topography of the township and its im- 

 mediate surroundings is minutely described, 

 and accounts are given of houses, residents, 

 and incidents occurring in its story. 



^ The north-east portion was joined to 

 the Rusholme Local Board district in 

 1856 ; the remainder became Moss Side 

 Local Board district. 



^ It was the property of Samuel Brooks, 

 the Manchester banker, who so named it 

 because he was born at Whalley, 



* 19 & 20 Vict, cap, 26. 



* It contains special collections relating 

 to Mrs. Gaskell and de Quincey. 



^ See the account of Rusholme. 



' Duchy of Lane. Inq. p.m. xii, 4. A 

 similar statement was made in 1598; 

 ibid, xvii, 27. From this it would seem 

 that Withenshaw lay on both sides of the 

 Cornbrook. 



In 1542 John Birch complained that 

 Robert Hunt and a number of others had 

 taken his beasts at Moss Side in a place 

 called Moss Green ; he stated that Ed- 

 mund Prestwich, who held six messuages 

 and 200 acres of land in Withenshaw, had 

 common of pasture in Moss Green and in 

 1540 demised a messuage and land to the 

 plaintiff, who thereupon placed his beasts 



302 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



on Moss Green ; Pal, of Lane. Plea, R, 

 172, m. 13. 



^ Moss Side is named in their inquisi- 

 tions ; see further under Withington and 

 Chorlton-with-Hardy. 'Two messuages 

 and 20 acres of land in Withington called 

 Moss Side' were held by Sir Edmund 

 TrafFord in 1513; Duchy of Lane. Inq. 

 p.m. iv, 51. 



' Great and Little Heald, otherwise 

 called ' TrafFord land,' lay on the south- 

 east border of the main portion of Moss 

 Side, as is shown by old estate maps. It 

 is now popularly known as the 'Tem- 

 perance Settlement ' in Marine Road, 

 formerly Dogkennel Lane, 



1" Returns at Preston. The Egertons 

 of Tatton were also owners, 



^1 A district was assigned to it in 1858 ; 

 Lond, Gax. 1 3 Aug. 



" The district was formed in 1 849 and 

 reformed in 1854 ; ibid. 16 June 1854. 



" Ibid. 18 Dec. 1883, for district. 



" Replacing York Street Chapel, 

 Hulme, in 1873. 



^ Pal. Note Bk.i, no. 



