St George's Church, Tyldesley | |
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![]() Tyldesley Parish Church from the north
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Coordinates: 53°30′49″N 2°28′17″W / 53.5135°N 2.4714°W | |
OS grid reference | SD 688 019 |
Location | Lower Elliot Street, Tyldesley, Greater Manchester |
Country | England |
Denomination | Anglican |
Website | The Parish Church of St George |
History | |
Dedication | St George |
Consecrated | 19 September 1825 |
Architecture | |
Status | Parish church |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | Grade II |
Designated | 18 July 1966 |
Architect(s) | Sir Robert Smirke |
Architectural type | Church |
Style | Gothic Revival |
Groundbreaking | November 1821 |
Completed | 1887 |
Specifications | |
Capacity | 1,100 (originally) |
Length | 112 feet (34 m) |
Width | 60 feet (18 m) |
Spire height | 150 feet (46 m) |
Materials | Sandstone |
Administration | |
Parish | Tyldesley cum Shakerley |
Deanery | Leigh |
Archdeaconry | Salford |
Diocese | Manchester |
Province | York |
St George's Church is an Anglican parish church serving Tyldesley and Shakerley in Greater Manchester, England. It is part of Leigh deanery in the archdeaconry of Salford and the diocese of Manchester. The church, together with St Stephen's Church, Astley and St John's Church, Mosley Common is part of the united benefice of Astley, Tyldesley and Mosley Common.
A Waterloo Church, it was founded as a chapel of ease of the parish church in Leigh in 1825, in a rapidly expanding township. A mistake with plans led to a larger church than the site could accommodate and extra land and money was donated to ensure the church could be completed. The church was extended at the east end and re-seated in the 1880s and has survived two fires. The churchyard contains the graves of victims of a disaster at Yew Tree Colliery. In 1966 the church was designated a Grade II listed building.
Up to 1789, when the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion built Tyldesley Top Chapel, the population of Tyldesley was dependent on the parish church in Leigh, an ancient ecclesiastical parish that, from medieval times, covered six townships. As the population grew quickly after 1800, a movement seeking to have an established church in the township developed. Thomas Johnson, owner of the Banks Estate gave land at the western end of the banks on which to build a Commissioners' Church. It was paid for by money from the parliament of the United Kingdom raised by the Church Building Act 1818, and said to be a celebration of Britain's victory in the Battle of Waterloo. £17,000 (equivalent to £1,260,000 as of 2015), was promised by the Church Building Commissioners. The architect was Robert Smirke. It was one of 174 neo-Gothic and 40 Classical style churches built under the Act.