Brookfield Unitarian Church,

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hig ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England is a

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church. It is a member of the

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Irelan ...

, the

umbrella body An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...

for British Unitarians.

History

Brookfield Unitarian Church was built between 1869 and 1871 to replace the Gorton Chapel, which stood on the same ground. It was commissioned by Richard Peacock (1820–1889), engineer and Liberal MP for Manchester, and designed by the prolific Manchester architect

Thomas Worthington Thomas or Tom Worthington may refer to: *Thomas Worthington (Douai) (1549–1627), English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College * Thomas Worthington (Dominican) (1671–1754), English Dominican friar and writer * Thomas Worthington ...

.The Buildings of England: Lancashire- Manchester and the South East, page 373 The church cost Peacock £12,000. It was designated a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

on 3 October 1974. The churchyard lodges and the Sunday School are also

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The church steeple contains a peal of eight bells, all named after members of the Peacock family.

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

The Buildings of England ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

describes the church as "very large and strikingly-prosperous looking. Stone, Early English style, with a north-west steeple. The church has a bold, simple, and perfect Ecclesiological interior." The church, and its graveyard, have suffered much from vandalism in recent years. Peacock, a partner in the locomotive engineering firm of Beyer, Peacock & Company is buried in the cemetery of the church, along with members of his family, in the Peacock Mausoleum, also by

Gorton Chapel

The Church was built on top of the Gorton Chapel, which was established in 1703. There is a stone memorial to the ministers of the Chapel in the church. A notable member of the church was

Samuel Birch Samuel Birch (3 November 1813 – 27 December 1885) was a British Egyptologist and antiquary. Biography Birch was the son of a rector at St Mary Woolnoth, London. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. From an early age, his manifest ...

. The Old Chapel graveyard remains.

Notes

References

* Hartwell, Clare, Hyde, Matthew and Pevsner, Nikolaus, ''The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Manchester and the South East'' (2004)

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

External links

Brookfield Unitarian Church Official website

Brookfield Church Memorabilia
A collection of historical documents relating to the church. * {{Manchester B&S Churches in Manchester Unitarian chapels in England Grade II* listed churches in Manchester

History

Gorton Chapel

See also

Notes

References

External links