Didsbury Methodist Church Of St Paul

Didsbury Methodist Church of St Paul is a Methodist church built in 1875, designed by E.T. Barry and Sons. The church is constructed from coursed squared sandstone rubble with a steeply pitched roof covered in graduated green slates. It comprises a nave with transepts, a chancel with a north vestry and a south organ house, and a south-west steeple. The architectural style is Gothic.

The three-stage tower features diagonal buttresses, a two-centred arched west doorway with two orders of moulding, including foliated bands and shafts with foliated caps. It also has coupled lancet windows to the second stage, coupled belfry lancets with shafts and hoodmoulds with figured stops, a foliated cornice with pseudo-gargoyles at the corners, square corner pinnacles with shafts and a broach spire with lucarnes. The three-bay nave has stepped triple lancets rising into gablets, and a traceried five-light west window. Buttressed aisles provide arcaded five-light windows. The north aisle has a gabled porch at the west end with a two-centred arched doorway and a steeply-pitched roof. The transepts incorporate angle buttresses, corner pinnacles like those on the tower, three-light windows in the gables, and coupled lancets in the sides. The chancel is characterized by a traceried three-light east window with figured stops to the hoodmould. Most windows contain geometrical coloured glazing.

Inside, the church has aisle arcades of polished granite columns with carved capitals and two-centred arches. The nave features a barrel roof supported by corbelled columns, a wide crossing with stout corbelled shafts to the arches, a wide chancel arch, and three-bay chancel arcades (blank arches on the north side, and the organ located on the south side), all with heavily-carved two-centred arches. The church includes encaustic tiled floors, a painted panelled barrel roof to the chancel, a stone pulpit on granite shafts, and a marble reredos. Carvings throughout the interior feature foliage, fruit, animals and birds. Several wall monuments commemorate "tutors of this college." The church has historical associations with the former Wesleyan Theological College (now Manchester Polytechnic School of Education).