History
In July 1899 a legal agreement was signed for the purchase of 2,000 square yards of land at a cost of £900 on Wheler Street, Higher Openshaw, as a site for a new Moravian church. This was the result of several years of outreach by members of the Moravian Settlement at Fairfield in nearby Droylsden. Indeed, the location had been the site of the Edge Lane preaching station as long ago as the 1850s.
An iron structure was erected and furnished on the land at a cost of £400. This building was 44 feet long and 24 feet wide and could accommodate nearly 220 people. At the street end, there was a porch with two side entrances. At the back was a small vestry. The church had four windows on each side and a small rose window at the porch end. At the vestry end, on a raised platform, stood the communion table and a desk. [1]
The new building was opened for worship on 16 November 1899, with public services taking place on 26 November and 3 December. [2] The Minister of Fairfield at the time, who led this work of outreach, was Br Samuel Kershaw.
Average attendance in the first month stood at eighty. Within five years, some two hundred people attended Sunday School. An extra building was erected in 1912. Wheler Street was the first Moravian congregation in the United Kingdom to have a Scout Troop. In 1920, Sir John Purser Griffith donated more than £2,000 to clear the building loans still outstanding on Wheler Street and three other Moravian churches. [3] At one time, over twenty groups had regular weekly meetings at the church. By 1929 a brick church had been erected and the iron structure was finally demolished in 1964. A new extension followed in 1967.
Sir John Purser Griffith was a Welsh-born Irish civil engineer and politician.
In the 110 years of its existence, the congregation had thirty ministers. Three of these went on to become bishops. Two men of Wheler Street acknowledged a call to ordained ministry and became Moravian ministers, Brn D Dickinson and D Howarth.
In its final years, the congregation had an average membership of about thirty people. Declining membership, demographic change and costs of further development prompted a decision to close the congregation in 2009. [1]
Droylsden is a town in Greater Manchester, England, 4.1 miles (6.6 km) east of Manchester city centre and 2.2 miles (3.5 km) west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689.
The Moravian Church, formally named the Unitas Fratrum, in German known as [Herrnhuter] Brüdergemeine, is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world, with its heritage dating back to the Bohemian Reformation in the 15th century and the Unity of the Brethren established in the Kingdom of Bohemia.
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The British Province of the Moravian Church is part of the worldwide Moravian Church Unity.
The Jamaica Province of the Moravian Church is part of the worldwide Moravian Church Unity.
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Fairfield Moravian Church and its surrounding settlement was founded in 1785 in Fairfield, Droylsden, Lancashire, England. It was founded by Benjamin La Trobe as a centre for evangelistic work for the Moravian Church in the Manchester area. Numbers 15, 28 and 30 Fairfield Square are Grade II* listed buildings.
Salem Moravian Church was founded in Oldham, Lancashire, England in 1825 by John Lees. Br Lees, who lived in the Clarksfield area of Oldham, was associated with the Moravian Settlement at Fairfield in Droylsden.
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