Old Pictures of the Holy Name

Old Pictures of the Holy Name

As they come to light, old pictures of the church and area will be put up here. If you have any old pictures of Holy Name buildings, worshippers and parishioners, priests and religious, the liturgy and services, guilds, clubs, societies and schools (or anything else!), then please let Fr Christopher know so we can put them up here and make copies for our archive.

The New Tower

For nearly 60 years the Holy Name had no tower, although one had been incorporated into the original design by Hansom (although if it had been built it would have been 73 feet, a third higher than the present tower, so we should be a little cautious of the seriousness of his intentions here).

This tower was opened and blessed by the bishop of Salford in 1928; the brave party standing on the little balcony for the ritual blessings just below the crucifix facing Oxford Road.

This new tower was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the red telephone box (the tower design can be seen in both of these). On the top of the tower were two great flag poles, but these were removed sometime later as the high winds in the north west caused massive pressure on the fixings of the flagpoles.

Here you can see the newly fininshed tower, with flag poles, standing proudly above Oxford Road. The church would have dominated all the surrounding area, as it continues to do to some degree. Its bells were heard for miles, and at night the tower was illuminated by floodlights in the balconies on the west front.

The Interior

Each generation has added to the interior decoration of the church. Hhere we have a rare picture of how it looked in 1889, within 20 years of its opening, and just 3 years of the consecration of the high altar.

Notice in particular the stained (or perhaps painted) glass window above the high altar showing scenes around the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immacualte Heart of Mary, and the great expanse of clear glass. This original stained glass was removed when the present windows were put in, and placed on the south side of the sanctuary, over the present sedilia. There is a scheme in our archives for all the windows in the church to be coloured, showing representation of the Jesuit saints, which would have made the church very dark and were thankfully never executed.

Also notice the old wooden pulpit that was replaced by the present alabaster pulpit, which was later decorated with representations of five of the English martyrs.

Again notice the light fittings - gas flares coming from the nave pillars. The places where they were fixed can still be seen, and one or two of the original survive out of sight in the ambulatory behind the high altar.

You can just make out the open arches between the ambulatory and the side chapels, where the servers’ benches are. These were blocked in about 30 years ago to give extra support to the weight bearing columns. This wide open sanctuary and chapels would have had quite a different feel what what we have today, although the drafts must have been terrible causing and uncapped wax candles to gutter tremendously.

You will notice that each pew has a small white badge on the nave side, which displayed the pew’s number. The seating in the pews was rented anually, and small ivory name plates were used to allocate each seat, one of which is visible in this picture. Some are still there displaying the names of the last person to pay pew-rent. These were common in the days before a collection was taken up during the Mass, and the most regular source of income for such a large church with a large clerical staff.

This next picture is from 1918, and shows the new windows depicting the coronation of our Lady surrounded by the orders of angels holding various emblems from the ‘Litany of Loreto’ (the next set of friends and family came later). In this view we can also make out the arrangement of the sanctaury lighting - the brass hoops with candles suspended between the arches. Either side of the sanctuary in the opening to the ambulatory are two statues on plinths. These are the twin statues of Ss Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, which now stand in the north west corner and north transept respectively. The ‘Holy Name Magazine’ tells the tale of the arrival of the marble blocks from Italy, much delayed by bad whether, and their transporation to Manchester by barge. They were carved here by Mr Alberti, who carved most of the statues in the church, in 1908 (I’ll check the date). Above these two statues are more stained glass windows; two smaller images of the same two saints in similar poses.

Comparing the two pictures, just 20 years apart, you can see what the air pollution of Manchester had already done to the stonework.

Arts and Crafts Movement

The Holy Name is of a typical counter-Reformation style, with short sanctuary, large pulpit in the congregation, confessionals, etc, although it is dressed as a 14th century gothic building. Other styles have been introduced throughout the years, one being that of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the first half of the 20th century. The great window in the south transept, the Memorial Window for parishioners who died in the First World War, is by Paul Woodroffe. He worked on 15 stained galss windows for the Lady Cahpel of of St Patrick’s cathedral, New York, and several other churches (including St Catherine’s, Chipping Camden where Fr Ray was Parish Priest), and was commissioned to design our beautiful window after the Great War. Here is an example of the design from the bottom left hand quarter:

Although never executed, there is a design for a crucifix by Eric Gill. It was to have the names of all those men who died in the Great War inscribed on the sides of the shaft of the cross below the words, “Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, Esto Mihi Jesus” (Jesus, Jesus , Jesus, be Unto Me a Saviour), the Holy Name being refrain of the Jesus Psalter, and this phrase uttered by many of the martyrs on their way to death.

There is no reference in the church archive for the proposed location of the image (at least none has come to light at the moment), but there is this sketch which exists in Gill’s papers.