Cross Street Chapel facts for kids
Cross Street Chapel is a special kind of church in the middle of Manchester, England. It belongs to a group called the Unitarians. This church is part of the main organization for Unitarians in Britain, which is like a big family of churches.
Contents
History of Cross Street Chapel
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In 1662, a new law called the Act of Uniformity 1662 was made in England. This law tried to control how people worshipped in the Church of England. But many church leaders did not agree with these rules.
About 2,000 ministers were forced to leave the official church. One of these ministers was Henry Newcome. He decided to start his own church group in the same year.
In April 1693, people decided to build a new meeting place for this group. They bought land in June on what is now Cross Street. Building started in July, and a gallery was added in February 1694. Henry Newcome opened the meeting-house on June 24, 1694. This "Dissenters' Meeting House" was very important for the growth of nonconformist churches in Manchester.
In 1715, a group of people called Jacobites attacked and damaged the building. But it was rebuilt and made bigger. Around 1761, the building was renamed Cross Street Chapel and became a Unitarian church.
Sadly, the chapel was destroyed during the Manchester Blitz in December 1940. This was a time when Manchester was bombed during the Second World War. A new building was constructed in 1959, and then another new one in 1997.
In 2012, Cross Street Chapel made history. It was the first place of worship in England to be allowed to hold civil partnership ceremonies. This happened when the law changed.
From 2014 to 2017, some work was done for the Manchester Metrolink tram system. The chapel used to have a graveyard. During the tram construction, 270 bodies from the old graveyard had to be moved. They were reburied in Southern Cemetery in Chorlton.
About the Chapel Building
The building you see today was finished in 1997. Inside the new building, there is a special room called the Gaskell Room. This room has many interesting items that belonged to the famous novelist Elizabeth Gaskell.
Important People Connected to the Chapel
A historian named Harold L. Platt said that being a member of this Unitarian church was very important in the Victorian period. He explained that it was a main source of new ideas for Manchester and had a huge impact on the city and the country for many years.
Here are some of the notable people who were part of the Cross Street Chapel:
- Sir Thomas Baker
- William Fairbairn
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- William Gaskell
- James Heywood
- Eaton Hodgkinson
- James Kay-Shuttleworth, 1st Baronet
- Henry Newcome
- Thomas Potter
- John Henry Reynolds
- Thomas Worthington
List of Ministers
Here is a list of the ministers who have led the Cross Street Chapel over the years:
- Henry Newcome 1662–1695
- John Chorlton 1687–1707
- James Coningham 1700–1712
- Eliezer Birch 1710–1717
- Joseph Mottershead 1717–1771
- Joshua Jones 1725–1740
- John Seddon 1741–1769
- Robert Gore 1770–1779
- Ralph Harrison 1771–1810
- Thomas Barnes 1780–1810
- John Grundy 1811–1824
- John Gooch Robberds 1811–1854
- John Hugh Worthington 1825–1827
- William Gaskell 1828–1884
- James Panton Ham 1855–1859
- James Drummond 1860–1869
- Samuel Alfred Steinthall 1870–1893
- Edwin Pinder Barrow 1893–1911
- Emanuel L.H. Thomas 1912–1917
- H. Harrold Johnson 1919–1928
- Charles W. Townsend 1929–1942
- F.H. Amphlett Micklewright 1943–1949
- Fred Kenworthy 1950–1955
- Reginald W. Wilde 1955–1959
- Charles H. Bartlett 1960–1967
- Kenneth B. Ridgway 1969–1971
- E.J. Raymond Cook 1972–1987
- Denise Boyd 1988–1996
- John A. Midgley 1997–2008
- Jane Barraclough 2008–2014
- Cody Coyne 2014–present
