A small late twentieth-century estate church, of rather severe external appearance.

Hattersley was developed as an overspill estate for Manchester in the 1960s. Mass was first said in 1963 for the men building the estate, in a hut, served from Hyde. Fr Dwyer moved to the estate in 1964 and a dual-purpose church-hall was opened in 1965, designed by Reynolds & Scott. The foundation stone of the current church was laid on 26 September 1981 by Bishop Gray and the church opened in 1982.

Description

The church building is aligned with the north gable-end facing the road; the entrance has double timber doors on the north side of the lean-to west narthex. The position of the sanctuary is not expressed on the exterior, but internally, it is against the east wall of the building. The church is faced in a textured brown brick and roofed in concrete tiles. The main source of natural light for the interior is a large clerestory in the form of a dormer window on the west side of the roof. Narrow uPVC windows on the west, south and north elevations, protected by steel grilles. The east elevation is blind.

Internally, the building is well lit from the west by high-level windows, and via a glazed screen between the narthex and the body of the church. The three-bay roof has an exposed steel roof structure. Walls and sloping ceiling are plain plastered. The whole of the floor is laid with fitted carpet, including the raised sanctuary on the east wall. Timber bench pews and sanctuary furnishings probably from the previous 1965 building.

Amended by AHP 08.02.2021

Heritage Details