Church Of St Gabriel

The Church of St Gabriel is a church built between 1932 and 1936 by Isaac Taylor and W Cecil Young. It is constructed of brown Blockley brick with Westmorland slate roofs, and represents a significant example of inter-war church design within the Manchester area.

The church's design incorporates a squat, west tower with set backs and a hipped roof, alongside a single-storey north chapel (originally a children’s corner) and a south porch. The basilica-plan nave has eight bays, with clerestory windows, and is connected to a short sanctuary. A north vestry and south sacristy are linked by a corridor with an east door. The architecture is notable for its elegant use of brickwork and stepped massing. Details include upright stretcher and header brick courses for chamfered plinths, door and window heads, and sills. The west end features panelled doors flanked by shallow pilasters with tapering moulded finials, circular windows between shallow clasping buttresses, and a stepped belfry stage with squat louvred openings surmounted by a plain cross. The windows are mostly square, four-by-four pane, in metal frames, with some having pivotted central six panes, and shallow buttresses between. Smaller windows are present in the vestries using the same style, while the chancel has circular windows.

Inside, the church is long and narrow, with white walls and an open timber roof to the nave, featuring king posts with splayed braces. A round arch leads to the sanctuary, which features a flat, painted and gilded ceiling. The nave originally had rush-seated chairs, but now includes handsome choir stalls and a pulpit designed by the architects, combining timber construction, Arts and Crafts workmanship, and elements of 17th-century style, mirroring the treatment of the west door. The sanctuary has an Ancaster stone pavement and steps, with panelling and finials at the east end, above which is a large painted crucifix, part of the original design. The children’s corner was remodelled as a Lady Chapel in 1952, incorporating a stained glass window. The west end of the nave has been truncated by one bay, with a full-height wall incorporating the original gallery front and late 20th-century doors. A low ceiling has been inserted behind this. A 1934 font, crafted from Ancaster stone, features a tulip-shaped bowl on a chamfered base with a carved wave motif and a wooden lid.

Taylor and Young were a leading church practice in the Manchester area during the interwar period, and St Gabriel's exemplifies their ability to create powerful compositions within limited budgets, combining 17th-century brick and timber motifs with influences from contemporary Dutch and North German architecture.