The church of St James the Apostle, opened in 1865. The land was given by the Earl of Stamford and most of the £3,500 cost of building was met bt mill owner Oldham Whittaker.
There is a plaque commemorating John Bradford of Manchester, a Christian martyr burnt at the stake in 1555.
See Google Street View of this location.
Sky Watch is a regular weekly feature on this photo blog. It links with websites all over the world with the general theme each week of looking upwards. Please take the opportunity to visit some of these other sites. I hope some new visitors have found their way here today, watching the skies!
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Lovely photo, - great blue colour in the sky!
ReplyDeleteKindly correct numerics comma - many thanks Martin (:-)
DeleteThe comma was in the right place, Pete. There were just too many noughts!
DeleteYour latest posts are really interesting, the pictures are great. Love them!
ReplyDeleteLovely image! Beautiful church with spires thrust into a gorgeous sky.
ReplyDeleteMy father was organist at St James for many years. He put tohether the following:
ReplyDeleteA short history of St James (to 1993)
prepared by Sam Sigley
The chosen site of St. James Church was by the side of the ancient highway, Cowhill Lane , and on high ground known in old records as the Great Cowhill, which was formerly grazing land for the farm animals belonging to the Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne.
In 1863 it became necessary to form a new Parish out of the Parishes
of St. Michaels, Christ Church, and St. Johns, Hurst. Fresh from the curacy of Christ Church, Ashton, the Reverend Thomas Baker Dixon discovered an area without a school or a church building and without a properly constituted Parish.
Thus St. James' Church began its life in an old scrap iron warehouse situated not a hundred yards northerly from the present north steeple of the church. It was in that lowly building on the August 1863 the first services of the church and Sunday school were held. A choir was formed from the mill hands who were employed in Mr. Oldham Whittaker's Mill in Hurst... continues
I grew up in the town, but moved away a good few years ago to University.
ReplyDeleteLived in many places, many towns, none as good as Ashton.
It's got it's faults, granted, but it's still pretty great!
Had a look through innumerable pages now, so many memories linked to these images, keep it up! :)