Fairfield Moravian Church

Fairfield Moravian Church and its surrounding settlement was founded in 1785 in Fairfield, Droylsden, Lancashire, England. It was founded by Benjamin La Trobe as a centre for evangelistic work for the Moravian Church in the Manchester area. Numbers 15, 28 and 30 Fairfield Square are Grade II* listed buildings.

In 1742 the Moravians established a headquarters for their evangelistic work in the North of England at Lightcliffe near Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the request of James Taylor and John Wood of Cheshire, evangelists moved to work in the Manchester area. In 1751 a congregation was established in Dukinfield, Cheshire, with a small settlement following in 1755. This was to be the centre of a preaching mission on the western side of the Pennines. There was limited scope for expansion at Dukinfield and in 1783 the Moravians purchased sixty acres of land in Droylsden from Mrs Greaves at Broad Oaks Farm and her neighbours, Mr Saxon and Mr Kirkenhead with a 999 years lease. This became Fairfield Moravian Settlement.

The architect of the settlement was a member of the Moravian Church, Brother John Lees, from Clarksfield, in Oldham. There is some evidence that Br Lees may have sold two coal mines he owned to pay for building Fairfield. Other finance came from Moravian congregations in England, Germany and America. The total cost was £6,000.

On 9 June 1784, foundation stones of chapel and choir houses were laid. A declaration was placed in the stone of the chapel, in which the settlers expressed their desire 'to be separated from the world and its seductions ... and ... to enjoy true fellowship as children of God', to serve the 'propagation of His Gospel among Christians and the Heathen' and asserted their 'adherence to the Word of God as contained in the Old and New Testaments, and the Augsburg (or Augustan) Confession'. (The Augsburg Confession contained the core doctrines of the Lutheran Church, by which the Moravians had been influenced during their time of renewal at Herrnhut on the estates of Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Saxony, Germany in the 1720s.)

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