St Bartholomew's Wilmslow

A Church for the Fees

See this article: Festival of British Archaeology Blog

A socio-historic study of Wilmslow Parish Church

Designed from the outset as a long-term community project, this Project explores the archaeology, architecture and social history of St.Bartholomew’s Parish Church in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

Short overview:

Unlike most Parish Churches Wilmslow’s church did not originally focus around a village of the same name but served two rural districts: the Pownall and the Bollin Fee (hence the name of the project), while the current town only became noteworthy in the 19 th century. In the early centuries of its existence the church and parish benefitted from the presence of the local patrons and benefactors (De Boleyn, Fitton, Venables, Trafford and Booth), but after the Civil War these patrons converted to Catholicism and the church was first maintained by the local yeomanry and later became the focus of attention of the rich sub-urban community at the southern fringes of Manchester (incl. families such as the Gregg’s of Styal Woollen Mill).

The beginnings of the current Anglican church are dated on the basis of a cursory study by an 19 th century architect into the 14 th century, while historical documents suggest a beginning about 150 years earlier. Despite extensive alterations in the 19 th and early 20 th century the history offers a number of interesting architectural features of the medieval and early modern period, as well as a comparatively well preserved historical record for its history esp. during the 15-17 th century and from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution onwards, which allows an in depth comparison of the planned architectural development and documented in the sources and the executed designs as documented by the surviving structures.

In addition, the church cemetery was equally affected by the architectural changes inside and includes preferred areas of interment of leading benefactors of the church in the 19 th and 20 th century, sometimes to the detriment of earlier landowners and their memorials. In combination with the surviving church and parish records it is thus possible to give a valuable insight of the social history of a small settlement and its development of a collection of farms into a suburb of Manchester from the medieval into the modern period 19 th century.

The Parish Church is currently on the eve of another series of major changes and the project is working closely with the PCC and the Parish Community to document and inform the community of its history and the rational of those earlier changes, as well as providing help with management of the cemetery area surrounding the church. The project can already draw on substantial historical work conducted in the past by members of the parish and is closely cooperating with the local Historical Society, for whom lectures on the progress of the work are offered and whose members are part of the local volunteers.

The topics for study:

The People

Wilmslow parish church has an extensive set of records which adds to the material known from the 19 th century Census records. In addition, its churchyard preserves a large collection of memorial beginning in the mid 17 th century with some of the earliest stones surviving in Cheshire. In combination with the independent long-term study of the transcriptions made of the wills and inventories of this part of Cheshire by the Wilmslow Historical Society, it is possible to identify large sections of the Church particularly for the 18 th and 19 th century, when the church, after the conversion of the original patrons to Catholicism was administered and maintained by a group of local yeomen.

The Community archaeology project is currently recording the memorials inside and outside the church.

        The Church

The Traditions

Wilmslow Parish Church has a long-standing parish a rich depository of traditions, some of which have fallen by the wayside in the last sixty-years. These include long-standing charities, such as ‘Lady Booth’s Money’ as well as St. Bartholomew’s Fair and old church banners.

Academic Co-ordinator: Birgitta Hoffmann Tel: 01625 526915 birgitta.hoffmann@btinternet.com
Secretary : Kathleen Morris morrisk32002@yahoo.co.uk

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As well as uncovering 'lost' graves, the stories behind them are important too. Go here to read about the Finney Family