Long Street Methodist, Middleton, Manchester
The Edgar Wood Society Open House – Meet the Curator event was a successful evening on two fronts, Nick and Richard brought along their latest research material. Also on show was the first painting owned by the society and kindly donated by Joan Allen living in Seattle. A sociable and convivial meeting was enjoyed by all attending.
The box gutters of the Edgar Wood Centre have been cleared of leaves for the fourth and final time, this November. Once again this has caused water ingress into the main hall.
However, as a result of the Edgar Wood Society tree appeal and their members generosity, this should now be a problem of the past. Below is a photo of the hall in early November and the same view today – the trees gone!
The self sown Sycamore trees that have been causing a problem for more than several years are at last being felled. Overhanging branches and falling leaves have continually blocked the boxed valley gutters with resulting water ingress. The use of ropes, agility and being young help. Local tree surgeons Birtle are doing a good job.
Rupert Hilton of Alan Gardner Associates has set up a Twitter hastag #Redcroft so people can follow the repair and restoration of Edgar Wood’s home built in 1891. The listed building heritage statement can be downloaded from this page.
On Tuesday 10th November, I went to Warrington New Town for an afternoon seminar about Garden Cities and Suburbs – looking back at the successes and forward to the future. Driving there through the stunningly autumnal parkways of the new town reminded me about the enormous social progress that came out of the Arts and Crafts movement. Josh Tidy, curator of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, spoke about the historic legacy of the first garden city.
The new towns, bigger successors to the original three Garden Cities of Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City and Wythenshaw, now lead the country in their growth and success with Warrington and Milton Keynes being the top of the pack. The place is such a civilised world away from the squalor of Victorian Britain. Edgar Wood would have been inspired! The event was organised by the Town and Country Planning Association, the successor of the original Garden Cities Association.
David Morris
A painting by Edgar Wood comes home after 108 years. Joan now living in Seattle, bought the painting in Washington State in 1970 when she was a student. Now down sizing, Joan wanted to find a good home for the artwork and doing a search on Edgar Wood came across our web site, got in touch and the rest is history. 
The painting is of Nozzano Castello, Lucca and to have a closer look at where Edgar Wood travelled check out the link https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZBhxcTxpN0
Our thanks to Joan for generously donating the picture to the Edgar Wood Society.
There was a good turn out for the Edgar Wood Society talk by Alec Hamilton on Arts and Crafts Churches. He certainly had the full attention of the audience as we learned about the criteria of what makes an Arts and Crafts Church. The photographs were superb, as was his talk both scholarly and lightened with amusing comments. Alec kindly distributed handouts, listing the churches featured in his talk. We are grateful to Alec for traveling all the way from Gloucestershire to give his talk and look forward to maintaining contact and reading his book in due course. 
“Edgar Wood’s grandest design would have transformed part of Manchester and transformed it gloriously with a capital G. During research for a new book Lost & Imagined Manchester, coming out this week, Jonathan Schofield came across a scheme by Wood that if it had been built and somehow survived would have made excursions to Port Sunlight from Manchester redundant. This would have been the garden village/model village par excellence for the North of England, indeed, of anywhere in the country, complete with art gallery, public baths, meeting hall, extensive gardens, fountains, churches and a school.” Jonathan Schofield
The Edgar Wood Society AGM was well attended, meeting in the lecture room for the first time. At the conclusion of the business session, Richard Fletcher gave an introduction to the Northern Art Workers Guild exhibition, which he and Nick Baker have curated. It was a good opportunity to meet members socially and view the impressive archive assembled to date.
Volunteers Maureen and Alan close the gates at the end of the final day of Golden Cluster Month at the Arts and Crafts Church (Long Street Methodist Church and School). Over 300 visitors came from throughout the local area and the wider region. One couple travelled from Maghull, having picked up a leaflet at Ellesmere Boat Museum. Comments in the visitors’ book read, “Inspirational” “Wonderful building, an eye opener” “Peaceful”. The list could go on.
Here is a miscellany of the heritage news for September…
Middleton Time Team dig at St Leonard’s Square
Heritage Open Day: Long Street Methodist Church
Middleton in step for more beautiful walkways
£50m plans submitted to convert Warwick Mill, Middleton
St John the Baptist Church, Rochdale upgraded to Grade II*
Future vision built to last – Oldham Cultural Heritage
Poignant memorial to thousands who are buried without a headstone at Salford’s biggest cemetery
Council in talks to sell Grade II listed building in Salford park to hotel chain
Ancoats Dispensary campaigners finally take official ownership of landmark building
Landmark Manchester buildings set for major revamp
Trafford town hall opens its doors… as a wedding venue!
Victoria Station’s revamp – by the architect driving Manchester’s modern railway revolution
Ordsall Chord: Lawyers argue decision behind chosen route was flawed, court hears
Ordsall Chord: Preserve the past or secure Salford’s future? Not an easy decision
Future heirlooms: Millinery Works celebrate modern day furniture makers
Clue up on Gertrude Jekyll, gardening’s forgotten woman
Arts and Crafts silverware set to go up for auction in Derbyshire
Campaigners buy William Blake’s cottage – and his vegetable patch
Major findings at Lancaster’s big Roman dig
Westminster Abbey lavatory block gives way to medieval burial find
Bronze Age ‘sauna’ unearthed on Orkney
The most endangered buildings in Britain – in pictures
How Downton Abbey helped to rescue Highclere Castle from ruin
Richard III grave in Leicester among top 25 sites to visit in the world
Historic swimming pools of Britain: Preserving our bathing heritage, in pictures
10 of the best architecture tours
This photographer is taking jaw-dropping photos of Europe’s abandoned buildings
‘They are barbarians’: meet the man defending Syria’s heritage from Isis
‘Islamic militant’ becomes first person ever charged with destruction of heritage sites
Heritage Open Days got off to a busy start on Friday 11th September with over 45 visitors to the Arts & Crafts Church and Edgar Wood Centre, just one of the four Middleton Golden Cluster buildings open. Mr. and Mrs. Wild walked from Norden (most of the way) to visit the buildings! Nick Baker, Edgar Wood Society archivist, showed visitors around the new exhibition while the Middleton Family History Group explained how to explore the lives of our forebears.
On Saturday, Mayor Surinder Biant and Mayoress Cecile Biant were the first to arrive. They spent a good 45 minutes with Christine Grime before setting off to visit a further four buildings. Then came Merlin the Magician who performed throughout the day to coincide with the ‘land train’ running from the town centre arrived. ‘Train’ turned into ‘trail’ as Christine Grime took a group of visitors around the Middleton Arts & Crafts buildings, designed by Edgar Wood. One visitor came from Liverpool; each year he picks a different location to visit. Then on one land train, Edgar Wood himself arrived, albeit in the form actor Colin Meredith.
A special treat was to meet Lynden Easterbrook, the great granddaughter of Middleton artist and metalworker, James Smithies, who is featured in the exhibition alongside Edgar Wood and Frederick Jackson. Lynden lives in the Inverness area of northern Scotland and travelled 400 miles to be in Middleton for the day, bringing with her various items that belonged to James Smithies, including an Arts & Crafts copper jug made by him.
Walking up through Jubilee Park to St. Leonard’s Square, visitors Middleton Archaeological Society completing their three week excavation of Church House/Grape’s Inn where the rear walls, cellar, cobbled passage and a possible blacksmith’s forge have been unearthed. Norman Redhead, County Archaeologist, visited the site with the dig leader Robert Huddart and agreed there was a lot of interesting archaeology. Finds were displayed in Middleton Parish Church adjacent.
Visitors were then treated to guided tours of Middleton Parish Church, the oldest building and finest interior of any church in the county. It is jam-packed full of historic art and craft work from medieval to modern times, including many Arts & Crafts workers, such as James Smithies, Edgar Wood, Christopher Whall and, in the 1960s, the designer George Pace. Over the past few weeks and over this weekend, a large number of people have visited St. Leonard’s and, this year, Rochdale Art Society mounted a special exhibition in honour of their late president, Colin Gilbert, who was a champion of the arts, a local historian and member of the church.
Visitors went to see the wonderful sixteenth century Queen Elizabeth I Grammar School. The history of the school was shown on several display boards and around the building. Finds from the Langley Hall archaeological dig were exhibited and two cabinets showed various artefacts relating to Middleton. Visitors had fun locating the initials of the young Edgar Wood inscribed in three places. He was one of the school’s last scholars.
Some visitors also went to see the Middleton Tapestry at Jubilee Library in the park and then popped over the road to visit the ancient timber framed Ye Olde Boar’s Head P.H. opposite.
We had a great turnout in all places. In the Arts & Crafts Church it was 45 on Friday, 60 on Saturday and 36 on Sunday afternoon, and there were plenty of complimentary remarks. People can still visit on Tuesday or Friday afternoons during September for ‘A Grand Day Out’ before we wind down – details are here.
Barry Noble the Quality Assurance Assessor for ‘Visit England’, made his unannounced inspection visit this afternoon. Maureen, a guide for the afternoon, at the Arts and Crafts Church impressed Barry with her knowledge and friendliness. He was complimentary about the visitor experience and made a few helpful suggestions as to how we could improve.
We can continue to display our ‘Visit England’ accreditation symbol.
Trafford Borough Council planning service is proposing to remove the Conservation Area status given in 1986 to ‘Halecroft – the former house, then council Offices and now commercial office that stands in Halecroft Park, Hale Road, Hale. The public are invited to comment on the proposal, which is part of a broader planning review of Trafford’s Local Plan.
Designed in 1890, ‘Halecroft’ is Edgar Wood’s first masterpiece, a flamboyant Arts and Crafts beauty. It is listed grade II* and is described in the listing as “an excellent example of Wood’s earlier work largely expressing the ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the vernacular revival.” The house is sited at the northern end of its large grounds, which includes mature trees an early Arts & Crafts garden designed by Wood. It is a popular place for local people.
While the listing would remain in place, the conservation area status is being removed as part of sweeping changes proposed for South Hale Conservation Area. The reasons are given in an appraisal of the conservation area and appear to be poorly stated. The Edgar Wood Society has joined the Friends of Halecroft Park in objecting to the change. The conservation area protects the broad character and appearance of Halecroft, the park and the wonderfully wooded street scene. The assemblage would be significantly less protected against intrusive housing or other development as a consequence of the proposed change.
If you wish to comment on the proposal, simply email strategic planning at Trafford with your views strategic.planning@trafford.gov.uk
To download a pdf of the draft appraisal click on South Hale Conservation Area Appraisal. Trafford Council’s strategic planning service web page is here
The first day of the Golden Cluster openings is only 24 hours away and the final touches are being made. We hope to see many visitors new and old throughout the month and also on the Heritage Open Days.
Nick Baker, the curator has done a great job putting together the exhibition titled: ‘Middleton’s Arts and Crafts Trinity’
An excellent evening was had by all who visited the Georgian Moravian Settlement and this was followed by a walk around an extension to the settlement designed by Edgar Wood and Henr
y Sellers, in the 2nd decade of the 20th century.
The first part of the tour was led by Jean Bailo, a Manchester tour guide and the walk around Broadway by our very own Nick Baker. Nick explained that Wood and Sellers were at the fore front of the Garden City movement and early town planners.
The Wood and Sellers extension blended beautifully with the original settlement and is well worth a trip. If you missed our trip then your next opportunity is on the Heritage Open Days in September.
