St John's Church is an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church on Mosley Common Road,

Mosley Common Mosley Common is a suburb of Tyldesley at the far-eastern edge of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it was anciently a hamlet in the east of the township of Tyldesley cum Shakerle ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It is an active church built in 1886 and part of Leigh

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

in the

archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

of Salford, diocese of Manchester. Together with

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

and

St Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...

, is part of the united benefice of Astley,

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the Wes ...

and Mosley Common.

History

Worship in Mosley Common took place in the school which operated as a mission of Ellenbrook Chapel from the early 1800s. In 1885, subscribers contributed £4,250 (equivalent to £ in ), to build the church on a site donated by the Bridgewater Trustees. The subscribers included the

Earl of Ellesmere Earl of Ellesmere ( ), of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1846 for the Conservative politician Lord Francis Egerton. He was granted the subsidiary title of Viscount B ...

, Lord Lilford, Mrs Harrison of Chaddock Hall and Henry Yates. The church's foundation stone was laid by the Countess of Ellesmere on 14 February 1885. The church was built in 1886 as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...

to the parish church in Tyldesley. Mosley Common was made into a separate parish in 1894. The

Bishop of Manchester The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.) The current bishop is David Walker (Bishop of Manchester), David Walker who w ...

consecrated the church in 1895 when the Earl of Ellesmere provided money to establish an endowment.

Church

The church is constructed in Yorkshire freestone in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style with a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

s. The bells were the gift of John Higham of Swinton and his wife gave the

lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...

. Mrs Harrison gave the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

, Mrs Whitehead the

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

and Mrs Brown the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

References

Notes Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mosley Common, St John Church of England church buildings in Greater Manchester Anglican Diocese of Manchester 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in Greater Manchester