A "GOLDEN CLUSTER" OF HERITAGE
51 & 53 Rochdale Road are well preserved example of Arts and Crafts domestic architecture. A picturesque quality is obtained through sensitive use of materials rather than irregular form. The form is blocky and efficient, with a grid-like arrangement of elements on the main facade. Asymmetry is created simply by raising the bay window on…
Middleton in the Renaissance – the great Reformation featuring The Battle of Flodden, the English Civil Wars and the Assheton family, lords of the manor of Middleton…
The Levers were a merchant family who had acquired large estates in the Manchester and Middleton areas during the Renaissance period of the 1600s. In 1736, Sir Darcy Lever decided to rebuild his family home, Alkrington Hall. Rather than going to local builders, he employed an Enlightenment architect of national importance, an Italian from Venice…
Long Street Methodist Church & Schools are a striking complex of connected buildings arranged around a courtyard garden – the finest Arts and Crafts Methodist Church anywhere. The church is open for worship on Sundays and other days CLICK HERE for details. Guided tours for groups are also available, CLICK HERE for details. Tours also…
The origins of Middleton ‘juxta Manchester’ – tales of Anglo Saxons, Vikings, St. Cuthbert, St. Leonard, the Black Death, Thomas Langley and the Middleton Black Knight! …
Visit the Old Grammar School web site to arrange a party, reception or other function Queen Elizabeth Grammar School was built in 1586 to replace the chantry school at St. Leonard’s Church which was abolished in the Reformation. When it was built, there was no town of Middleton but a rural township with scattered buildings…
The original Long Street Methodist Sunday School was a unique place of learning for those without a weekday education. Edgar Wood used the forms and materials of rural buildings to create a school which looked forward to a civilised future where natural beauty and education went together. The school was published across Britain, Europe and…
Edgar Wood and J. Henry Sellers had met up in 1903 and quickly began working on a new type of ‘cubic’ architecture using reinforced concrete and to create buildings not possible with traditional roofs. Elm Street School (now Elm Wood School) was designed as a ‘Board School’. However, it was radically different to the other…
In the early days of Arts & Crafts architecture, pioneers like Edgar Wood experimented with a variety of materials and forms, trying to find a new way in design. The semi-detached pair of houses on Rochdale Road, Middleton, Briarhill & Hillcrest (1892), is one of these and represents an art nouveau ‘town’ approach to design in contrast…
