Unitarian Chapel March 2010 Manchester

Unitarian / Welsh Baptist Chapel Manchester

Another hidden gem based in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.
The chapel was designed by Sir Charles Barry, shortly before he designed the Palace of Westminster. It was constructed between 1837 and 1839 out of sandstone, with a slate roof. It is in English neogothic style.
In 2006 it had its’ roof removed for safety reasons and although Grade 2 listed – it is on the buildings at risk register.
It is a chapel, which means that it was used for marriages, burial rites and baptisms but not internment – hence no graveyard.
Over the years it has been used by Jehovahs witnesses, as a Labour church and most recently an Islamic academy. An adjoining building – formerly a Sunday school is still used for this purpose.
I’ve planned to hit this place for ages, it was a sunny day and after a model shoot – I took a lady friend there and stripped her of her Urbex virginity.
It’s a real mess in there and surprisingly overgrown for 4 years of emptiness and the elements taking hold. Careful footing is required and don’t eat your lunch upstairs because the pigeon crap has well and truly taken over.
The real centrepiece is the moulded rose window on the east wall.

What a gorgeous find. So many lovely remains. I love the way nature has overran the pews...there's something wonderfully pagan about that image.
I didn't know that fact about chapels not interring. There's an exception to that near where I live; a tiny chapel in which the founder was buried next to the path. Perhaps there was a special dispensation or something?
Cheers Bignick. Great find.

Yum. Delicious. Please sir, can I have some more?

It used to be the case in England that burial rights were the preserve of the parish church - in poorer parishes, about the only income that the incumbent received was from burial dues, so when other churches - either other denominations or even other C-of-E churches (build as chapels-of-ease) sprang up within the parish boundaries, the incumbent would fiercely resist any attempts to open another graveyard, hence they are relatively rare. I can't remember when this started to change - probably about the same time as the municipal cemeteries started to spring up.

It's for this reason that you still see "corpse roads" in the landscape: it used to be the case that once a corpse had entered consecrated ground, it was illegal to remove it. Consequently, after the funeral service in a chapel, the coffin would be borne along a connecting pathway from the chapel to the churchyard of the parish church - often a distance of several miles. There are quite a few still visible in the countryside, mostly in Cornwall, I think. I'm told that if you look carefully at the layout of some old cities like Norwich, you can make out where corpse roads would once have passed, although they've since been filled in with buildings.

RichardH said:

It's for this reason that you still see "corpse roads" in the landscape: it used to be the case that once a corpse had entered consecrated ground, it was illegal to remove it. Consequently, after the funeral service in a chapel, the coffin would be borne along a connecting pathway from the chapel to the churchyard of the parish church - often a distance of several miles. There are quite a few still visible in the countryside, mostly in Cornwall, I think. I'm told that if you look carefully at the layout of some old cities like Norwich, you can make out where corpse roads would once have passed, although they've since been filled in with buildings.

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Ah, fantastic stuff. Thanks for the info, RichH. I wondered why chapels couldn't inter. I'm guessing that the founder of the one near me may have requested it in his will, but I will check that out when I do the research on it for my website. Corpse roads...I've read a bit about these. I think there are still a fair few in rugged isolated places, such as Cumbria, and, as you said, Cornwall. I believe that some of the old trackways (aka ley lines) were utilized as corpse roads, too.
Cheers for that. I can feel a project coming on!

Foxylady said:

Cheers for that. I can feel a project coming on!

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You're welcome. My special task in this life is to be the cause of work for other people.