Arts & Crafts Awakening – SiB project ‘Wrap Up’ Meeting

This was our ‘wrap up’ meeting with Locality expert Zoe Goddard.  She took us through the income streams which will form part of the Trust’s  business plan for the Edgar Wood Centre. The meeting was keen to press on with enhancing the Lecture Room and to write to the Heritage Lottery Fund about our recent activities. Tea and sandwiches were provided as usual and we had a good turn out of 11 people despite five or more members being away on holiday. As this particular project now comes to an end, we would all like to thank Zoe for her advice and efforts on our behalf.

Oldham University of the Third Age

Seventeen members of the Art section of the Oldham University of the Third Age visited the Arts and Craft Church (Long Street Methodist Church and School Rooms) this afternoon. Following a introduction about the building and the importance of  Edgar Wood to the Arts and Crafts movement, they set off to explore other buildings by EW in the locality. A round of applause was given and everyone said what a good afternoon it had been.

Weddings in the Lecture Room?

Today (20th May), we met up with our surveyor and Jubilee to discuss further the possibility of holding weddings and receptions in the Edgar Wood Centre and what is needed to make the interiors more appropriate. It was a good meeting and we concluded that the Lecture Room was the best option to develop first. It would mean parties entering via the Long Street gateway and walking through the formal garden to the Lecture Room vestibule – something perfect for a wedding!

Manchester Walking Tours Visit

On Sunday 17th May, seventeen members of the public turned up for a guided walk around Middleton’s Edgar Wood buildings. They were led by an official Manchester tour guide and Edgar Wood enthusiast, Elizabeth Sibbering (Sibby). The group visited the Arts and Craft Church (Long Street Methodist) as part of the tour. For more information see http://manchestertourguide.com/

Registrar Visits Middleton Edgar Wood Centre

The Borough’s official registrar and Jubilee catering visited the Edgar Wood Centre at Long Street on Tuesday as we explore opportunities to use the School Hall and Lecture room for weddings and receptions. It was a good meeting and while nothing is absolutely guaranteed, we are very hopeful that the Edgar Wood Centre will be allowed to hold civil ceremonies.

Wilson Potter Brewery – Saturday Soiree

On Saturday 9th May, The hall at the Edgar Wood Centre became the venue for the Wilson Potter Brewery ‘Saturday Soiree’. As well as enjoying a range of craft beers, brewed here in Middleton, guests had the opportunity to look around the Arts & Crafts Church & school buildings and learn about Middleton’s revolutionary architect, Edgar Wood.
Around 65 people attended over the course of the event and a great time was had by all.
To find out more about Wilson Potter Brewery and their range of award winning beers please CLICK HERE http://www.wilsonpotterbrewery.co.uk
IMG_0484IMG_0497IMG_0488

Library, Family History Group and Brewery descend…

Tuesday 28th April was one of those busy days at the Arts & Crafts Church buildings when several activities came together at the same time. While the Methodists were having their usual Tuesday meeting in the church, next door there was a steady traffic of people. One group was moving the Middleton History Library over from the Old Grammar School to its new home in the Edgar Wood Centre, while the Family History Group moved furniture and materials into its new office and set up the Lecture Room for its first meeting on Thursday, while the brewers, Wilson Potter, went room to room with Arts & Crafts Trust members sorting out the details for their first beer ‘soiree’ in the hall on 9th May.

The library arrives in dozens of boxes
The library arrives in dozens of boxes
Moving them on...
Moving them on…
Setting up the temporary home
Setting up the temporary home
The Library will eventually go here
The Library will eventually go here
Family History Group moving in
Family History Group moving in
The lecture Room laid out for the first Family History Group meeting
The lecture Room laid out for the first Family History Group meeting
Organising the Wilson Potter Beer Soiree
Organising the Wilson Potter Beer Soiree

 

165 & 167 Manchester Old Road – 1912 architect Edgar Wood

165–167 Manchester Old Road, MiddletonIn 1912 Edgar Wood built his final pair of semi-detached houses, 165–167 Manchester Old Road, Middleton, adjacent to his very first pair, West Lea of 1887. In doing so, he created one of the most unusual semis of his career – a striking building that fascinates everyone who takes time to look at it. The quality of the design and the thought that went into it, is outstanding.

Treating West Lea as a starting point, Edgar Wood derived from it the pitch of the gables, the string courses and general symmetry. He combined these with an abstract motif, a triangle, which shaped the outline of the main elevation. To achieve this he allowed the roofs of two outer entrance porches to continue the visual line of the main roof downwards towards the ground.

The main fenestration, however, was subsumed within a rectangle formed by a pair of two-storey bays, with two lines of strip windows wrapping around the bays.  These are of Georgian proportion, subdivided into twelve rectangular quarries per window. The top outer corners of the bays protrude from the diagonal roof-line, thereby creating the outline of a kneeled gable, a Wood leitmotif.  Finally, the shape of the door glazing, door heads and garden entrances (now demolished) is circular, so that Edgar Wood created the whole façade of the building from a series of simple triangles, rectangles and circles; an extraordinary reinterpretation of a traditional semi-detached house using the architectual language of the future modern movement.

Honorary Member of Edgar Wood Society Makes a Surprise Visit

165-167 Manchester Old Road Middleton EW (2)_procMr. John Archer a retired lecturer of Architecture at the University of Manchester ‘re-discovered’ the work of Edgar Wood while doing on the job training at Middleton Town Hall in the 1940’s. Edgar Wood’s ‘Toblerone’ houses, 165 &167 Manchester Old Road,  Middleton facing the then town hall took his attention.  John is subsequently reputed to have cycled the highways and byways of the area to discover other buildings by Edgar Wood.

Arts & Crafts Awakening/Middleton Heritage Meeting

We had a good meeting tonight (31st March 2015) working through a mix of detailed issues and broad aims about how we want to celebrate Middleton’s heritage and involve local people. Concerning the Heritage Lottery application, we agreed an outline for a local digital archive and history library, (still more idea than scheme) and asked four Middleton Archaeological Society and Edgar Wood Society members if they could work it up further. The Lettings group also discussed a number of enquiries and of lines of interest for using the buildings.

Renovation Continues

One of the directors of The Arts and Crafts Trust Ltd is continuing the work to get the room next to the kitchen back into use, but what else could Maureen be going on a wet afternoon. The room next to the kitchen was traditionally known as the cutting up room. Can anybody suggest why, other than it being next to the kitchen.