Bircle

Last updated

Bircle
Birclechurch1.jpg
Bircle Church in Winter
Greater Manchester UK location map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Bircle
Location within Greater Manchester
OS grid reference SD829122
Metropolitan county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town BURY
Postcode district BL9
Dialling code 0161
Police Greater Manchester
Fire Greater Manchester
Ambulance North West
List of places
UK
England
Greater Manchester
53°36′22″N2°15′32″W / 53.606°N 2.259°W / 53.606; -2.259

The historic parish of Bircle, near Bury, England, was created on 1 July 1846, although the village of Bircle (now known as Birtle) has existed for many centuries. It is believed that 'Bircle' is a shortening of the phrase 'Birch Hill', as it was suggested that there were birch trees in the parish. Names such as "Cleggs Wood", "Simpson Clough" and "Dobb Wood" appear on early Ordnance Survey maps. "Hill' appeared in the fourteenth century in the name of 'Birkhill' but it never found a permanent place. Over time its name has also appeared as Brithull, 1243; Birlcil, 1246; Birkhill, 1334, 1573; but Bircle appears in the Diocese of Manchester [1] directory in England.

Contents

Bircle Church is on Castle Hill Road. [2]

Parish

Vicars of the parish

The church

Bircle Church - Saint John the Baptist Aerial church.jpg
Bircle Church – Saint John the Baptist
Inside the church Bircle church.jpg
Inside the church

The church of St John the Baptist, also known as Bircle Church, is a listed building for its special architectural or historic interest. [3] The church was designed by architect George Shaw and was first dedicated in 1846. It is a small church and is a relatively early example of ecclesiologically correct Gothic rock-faced ashlar with ashlar dressings and slate roofs with stone-coped gables. The nave and chancel both have hammer beam roofs rising from stone corbels. Carved angels holding shields are on the ends of the hammer beams. There are four stained glass windows in the nave, which were given in memory of loved ones. They depict Ruth, Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Mary, the mother of Jesus. On the wooded ceiling are carved angel figures.

Long:-2.260 Lat:53.607

The mural in Bircle church hall was painted by the local potter Harry Johnston.

The Workhouse

In 1852, plans were made for a workhouse to accommodate 400 inmates, with a separate 60-bed hospital in Jericho. Jericho Workhouse, also known as the Bury Union Workhouse [4] , was opened on 21 January 1857, and a year later the total expenditure for the scheme had swollen to £20,481. [5] Inmates came from as far away as Spain. In the 1881 census a 64-year-old named Susannah Allport, a Bonnet Maker (Milliner) from Salamanca was in residence.

Today it is the site of Fairfield General Hospital.

Historical timeline of Bury Workhouse

The Road to Jericho [6]

1775 – A workhouse was built on Manchester Road, Redvales, Bury.

1825 – Bury Select Vestry recommended that the town needed to build a new workhouse or improve the existing one.

1827 – The Vestry decided to extend the existing Bury workhouse.

1837 – The Poor Law Union was formally declared on 8 February.

1850 – The Bury Board of Guardians were refused an extension on the lease of land for the workhouses.

1852 – The Bury Board of Guardians gave notice that they were prepared to receive plans and specifications for a new Union workhouse capable of support 400 inmates with suitable outbuildings, yards and conveniences.

1853 – The Vaccination Act introduced compulsory vaccination against smallpox. It required that every child, health permitting should be vaccinated within 3 months, or in the case of orphans, 4 months of birth.

1855 – Work began on the new Bury Union workhouse at Jericho, almost two miles east of Bury on Rochdale Old Road.

1857 – The Bury Union workhouse opened on 21 January. The total cost of building and land was £21,418.

1858 – The Bury Union workhouse was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester on 26 July.

1862 – Additions were made to the Bury Union workhouse providing separate infant accommodation.

1867 – The poor law guardians were to control vaccination districts and pay vaccinators from 1 – 3 shillings per child vaccinated in the district.

1868 – Additions were made to the Bury Union Workhouse to provide separate accommodation for the 'insane'.

1877 – On 9 June the foundation stone for a new 32 bed infectious diseases hospital at the Jericho site was made by Alderman John Duckworth, chairman of the Bury Board of Guardians. There was also to be a nurses' home and mortuary.

1878 – The infectious diseases unit was opened on 24 August.

1903–1905 – A new 126 bed infirmary with a maternity ward and staff accommodation was erected on the Jericho site. The site was officially opened on 20 September 1905.

1904 – The Registrar General requested that the workhouse births were to be disguised by the use of postal addresses. Birth certificates for those born in the Bury Union workhouse gave the address 380 Rochdale Old Road, Bury and did not name the workhouse.

1911 – Bury Union workhouse added an annexe to house male inmates.

1929 – Bury Union workhouse was renamed Jericho Institution.

1946 – The last burial took place at the Jericho Institution cemetery.

1948 – The Jericho Institution became part of the National Health Service and was renamed Fairfield General Hospital.

Cheesden Valley and the Lost Mills by Air

The Cheesden Valley runs on a north-south alignment between Bury and Rochdale. Cheesden Brook runs through the valley, joining with Naden Brook to eventually run into the River Roch near Heywood. During the industrial age, the valley became a centre of cotton production, dependent on running water. The valley is now reclaiming the once busy mills and returning them to nature. The Lost Mills can be seen from the air. It encompasses Deeply Vale, Bircle Dene and Ashworth Valley.

Mining

As early as 1580, Queen Elizabeth I granted John Blackwall the right to mine coal in the Cheesden Valley. In addition, it is believed that during the 17th century, small communities – "folds" – could have had their own mines.

Pre-Industrial History

There are signs of human activity dating from about 8000 BC. Flints from the Mesolithic period have been found in the Cheesden Valley and Knowl Moor areas. All were discovered on high ground close to a water source, and all are small and suitable for use as arrowheads and similar objects.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bury, Greater Manchester</span> Market town in Greater Manchester, England

Bury is a market town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. which had a population of 81,101 in 2021 while the wider borough had a population of 193,846.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crumpsall</span> Electoral ward in England

Crumpsall is an outer suburb and electoral ward of Manchester, England, 3 miles (5 km) north of Manchester city centre, bordered by Cheetham Hill, Blackley, Harpurhey, Broughton, and Prestwich. The population at the 2011 census was 15,959. Historically part of Lancashire, Crumpsall was a township within the parish of Manchester, Salford Hundred. North Manchester General Hospital is in Crumpsall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workhouse</span> Institution for those unable to support themselves

In Britain, a workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. The earliest known use of the term workhouse is from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdon reporting that "we have erected wthn [sic] our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramsbottom</span> Town in Lancashire, England

Ramsbottom is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 17,872.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Oldham Hospital</span> Hospital in England

The Royal Oldham Hospital is a NHS hospital in the Coldhurst area of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. It is managed by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. The hospital has its own volunteer-run radio station, Radio Cavell, which broadcasts at 1350 AM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etchinghill, Kent</span> Human settlement in England

Etchinghill is a village in Kent, England, about 5 km north of Hythe, and 1 km north of the Channel Tunnel terminal at Cheriton, near Folkestone. It is in the civil parish of Lyminge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Manchester</span> Diocese of the Church of England

The Diocese of Manchester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, England. Based in the city of Manchester, the diocese covers much of the county of Greater Manchester and small areas of the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collyhurst</span> Inner city area of Manchester, England

Collyhurst is an inner city area of Manchester, England, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northeast of the city centre on Rochdale Road (A664) and Oldham Road (A62), bounded by Smedley, Harpurhey and Monsall to the north, Miles Platting to the east, Ancoats to the south, and the River Irk to the west. Prominent buildings include two Roman Catholic churches, St Patrick's and St Malachy's.

Shoreditch (St Leonard) was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex. It was both a civil parish, used for administrative purposes, and an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England. The parish church is St Leonard's, Shoreditch, often simply called "Shoreditch Church".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walmersley</span> Human settlement in England

Walmersley is a suburban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheesden Valley</span>

The Cheesden Valley is a valley in the Heywood area of Greater Manchester, England. It runs on a north–south alignment between Bury and Rochdale in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Cheesden Brook runs through the valley, joining with Naden Brook to eventually run into the River Roch near Heywood. During the industrial age the valley became a centre of cotton production dependent on running water. The valley is now a conservation area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairfield General Hospital</span> Hospital in Greater Manchester, England

Fairfield General Hospital is a hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester. It is managed by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust.

Leigh Union workhouse, also known as the Leigh workhouse and after 1930, Atherleigh Hospital, was a workhouse built in 1850 by the Leigh Poor Law Union on Leigh Road, Atherton in the historic county of Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chorlton Poor Law Union</span>

Chorlton Poor Law Union was founded in January 1837 in response to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, also known as the New Poor Law. It was overseen by an elected board of 19 guardians representing the 12 parishes in the area it served: Ardwick, Burnage, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Chorlton with Hardy, Didsbury, Gorton, Hulme, Levenshulme, Moss Side, Rusholme, Stretford, and Withington, all in present day south Manchester, England.

Bury Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Bury, Greater Manchester, England between 1903 and 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St David's Hospital, Cardiff</span> Hospital in Wales

St David's Hospital is a health facility in Canton, Cardiff, Wales. It is managed by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. The original main block is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jericho, Bury</span> Human settlement in England

Jericho is a district of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is thought that the area of Jericho was so named when the reverend John Wesley preached there in 1778 along with his pilgrimage through Bircle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Alfege's Hospital</span> Hospital in England

St Alfege's Hospital was a hospital that operated in the Maze Hill area of east Greenwich in southeast London. It operated as the Greenwich Union Infirmary from 1874 to 1929. It was briefly known as the Greenwich and Deptford Hospital before becoming St Alfege's Hospital in 1931. It was then superseded by Greenwich District Hospital in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heavitree hospital</span> Hospital in England

The Heavitree Hospital (currently branded as the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (Heavitree)) is a hospital currently operated by the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, as a satellite site of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital with its main site a short distance away at Wonford. The hospital started as the Exeter Workhouse, and was also known as the Exeter City Hospital.

References

  1. Bircle Church
  2. Nikolaus Pevsner's "Buildings of England, South Lancashire"
  3. Historic England list entry summary
  4. Bury Times Newspaper, 5 September 2018
  5. Workhouses
  6. The Road to Jericho:Life inside Bury Union Workhouse

Archives+

About Archives+

Archives+ has created an archive in Manchester. The project includes statutory, university and voluntary organisations to provide a range of archive and heritage services from one location. Archives+ raises awareness of and provides access to histories.