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St Thomas's Church, Pendleton
By Tony Flynn
edited: Callum Doolan Standing high above Salford Precinct on the main A6 road is a magnificent Gothic church which dates back to October 1831 and is steeped in history, I am of course refering to St Thomas's Church, or much better known to generations of Salfordians as Pendleton Church. I was going to start this piece by saying what links the following to St Thomas's Church, - Napoleon,The Duke of Wellington, Mark E Smith, Walter Greenwood, The Optimist Magazine, "Black Douglas" but decided that it would be easier to tell you in this story. I had the pleasure of speaking to Arnold Allcock who is a fount of knowledge about the church and here we discuss the church. The church's foundation stone was laid in September 1829 and on October 7th, 1831 - a public holiday - it was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester, it could seat 1,600 people and is a incredible example of Gothic architecture, complete with bell tower, crypt, graveyard and more importantly, a stunning interior, with an upper seating gallery for 600 people. The Napoleon link comes about because, after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in June 1815, an Act of Parliament in 1818 granted £1 million to finace the building of new churches throughout England, these churches were known as Waterloo Churches, the nations thanksgiving to God for the victory over Napoleon, "lest a Godless people might also be a revolutionary people". In the First World War several hundred men from the parish died in the fighting and there are two memorials to them, outside is a stone cross, whilst inside the church are two carved wooden panels with the names of 260 Pendleton men who lost their lives. Walter Greenwood the well known Salford author was a choir boy at St Thomas's and it was here that he was to meet a man who would be a big influence on his life, the Rev Samuel Proudfoot, he attended talks given by him and here possibly the seeds of Love on the Dole were born, some people used to say that without his influence, Greenwood would never have written this classic book. Rev Proudfoot arrived at St Thomas's in 1921 and soon became a somewhat radical figure, he was well known for his charitable work in the parish but he also took a great and practical interest in Socialism and the Socialist movement, he founded and edited for twelve years, "The Optimist" an influential quarterly almost devoted to Socialism, as can be imagined the idea of a man of the cloth espousing socialism from the pulpit especially in the depressed years of the 1920's and 1930's was frowned upon in certain circles. Rev Proudfoot died in May 1933, with hundreds of people crammed into the church and on nearby Broad Street, with the service being read by the Dean of Canterbury, representatives of various trade unions were in the congregation whilst Walter Greenwood sent a letter of sympathy. In the upper gallery of St Thomas's ccurch are several stone memorial tablets dedicated to late parishoners, an interesting one is dedicated to William Douglas of The Old Hall, Pendleton who owned the Douglas Green Mills in Salford sometomes referred to as the Cripple Factory or The White Slave Mill, and was better known as Black Douglas, he was reputedly the sadistic owner who was infamous for using child labour, some as young as 7 and 8 who would often get killed using the dangerous looms in the mill, he was die in 1810 and his ghost was said to haunt the area for many years after. Coming up to modern day no mention of St Thomas's would be complete without mentioning Arnold Allcock, aged 79, Arnold has been at the church since 1945, becoming the deputy organist when he was seventeen and was married at the church in 1955 and has an incredible knowledge of the church and its history He told me that the the church, needs a minimum of £100,000 to alter its interior – including installing moveable glass doors, creating a welcome area and upgrading the heating system. "People find it an ideal venue for weddings but often ask if they can have the reception here. If we can open the church up with glazed walls to include the chancel area, we could have enough room. But it isn’t just for that. We also want to increase our mission and worship to encourage more people to come." Permission has been granted for the work by the Diocese of Manchester and no objections have been made by Salford council. Funding has also been provided by the deanery of Salford but at least £100,000 is still needed. Arnold allowed me to go up the bell tower and see the huge eight bells which ring out over Salford, in the bell room are some incredible wall boards listing the names of previous bell ringers also an impressive board to commemorate Queen Victoria's, Diamond Jubilee in 1897, when a special bell ringing tournament was held. Sadly I was unable to visit the crypt where quite a few people are interred, mainly wealthy business families from Millionaires Mile on Eccles Old Road, perhaps another visit is in order. If you are passing the church I would urge you to call in and see the splendour that we have here in Salford, visiting times are Wednesday's between 10:30am and 1pm. Oh, The Mark E Smith connection is that he and Salford muscian Ed Blaney performed a one gig at the church in February 2009, I attended and found it quite a bizarre spectacle. Later on this month we will be putting up a another video showing the interior of the bell tower and its workings, together with the incredibly detailed wall boards listing past bell ringers and events, but you will have to wait I'm afraid.
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