• historic
• parks
• ecclesiastical
  • manchester cathedral
  • all saints, stand
  • holy name, manchester
  • holy trinity, dobcross
  • st. margaret's, dunham
  • st. michael's, ashton
  • st. peter's, blackley
  • st. thomas', newhey
• secular
• domestic

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Client	Father Matus
Location	Manchester
Status	Grade I listed
Summary	Whole scale re-roofing, masonry repair and re-construction, structural rebuilding and restoration of stained glass windows, plus improvement of public access
Completion	May 2008
Build Value	Previous phases to date £1.5m Recent phase approx. £700,000

The Holy Name Church was designed by J.A.Hanson in 1868. It is regarded as one of his finest churches. Construction began in the 1870's but became somewhat troubled as funds began to run out. The resulting building, whilst spectacular, was part complete without tower, high altar and chapels. The outstanding work was completed by Hanson's son, J.S.Hanson, Bentley and Adrian G. Scott who completed the tower in 1928.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of Hanson's design was the incorporation of hollow hexagonal terracotta pots to form the nave, aisle and sanctuary vaulting. The use of these pots, in lieu of the traditional solid masonry, ensured that the structure was comparatively lightweight thus enabling the aisle arcade columns to be surprisingly slender.

The open airiness of the nave and aisles is quite remarkable and is a fitting tribute to Hanson, one of the more inventive of our nineteenth century architects.

In 1993Lloyd Evans Prichard undertook a detailed condition survey of the church in order to enable the successors of the Society of Jesus – for whom the church was built – to ascertain the extent of any defects. The survey report identified that the building was suffering with major problems, including structural roof issues, problems with high level masonry and dry rot.

The representative of the Oratarians, who had taken over the running of the church, joined with Lloyd Evans Prichard to develop a phased programme of work and raise funding. Extended negotiations took place with English Heritage initially and, when the scale of the task became clearer, the Heritage Lottery Fund. An equal joint partnership was forged between the church and the funding bodies which enabled detailed work to begin.

The first phase of work was to overhaul the south side of the building from ridge to pavement level at a cost of £700,000. This was followed a couple of years later with a similar phase to the west side of the church.

The work included whole-scale re-roofing including all leadwork and rainwater goods, localised rebuilding of masonry and stained glass windows, along with the re-building of critical elements of structure at low level.

A platform lift was also installed at the entrance to overcome the 8 stepped entrance.

The last phase of work includes extensive overhaul of the East end of the church including reslating with diaper pattern and frplacing the filigree iron ridge based on Hanson's original drawing.