St Matthew'S Church

St Matthew's Church, Edgeley

Built in 1855 with the tower and spire added in 1866, St Matthew's Church was designed by J.S. Crowther, a significant Manchester architect of the Gothic Revival. The church is constructed of hammer-dressed buff coloured sandstone with stone roofing slates.

The building comprises a rectangular clerestoried nave with a west tower, south porch, chancel with vestry to the north, and north aisle longer than the south. Sited within a large grassed churchyard and separated from surrounding terraced housing by a matching sandstone wall, the church acts as a focal point for the area.

The imposing four-stage west tower has angle buttresses and is surmounted by a broach spire with gabled, traceried lucarnes. The west doorway is ornamented with trefoil cusping, nook shafts, and bands of fleuron and nailhead work. Above this is a three-light geometric window, followed by quatrefoil windows to the bell-ringing chamber. The fourth stage features louvered two-light windows with heavily crocketed hood moulds, splayed shafts, and blind tracery copies. The nave comprises four bays with lancet windows to the aisles and quatrefoils to the clerestory. The chancel has three bays with double-light traceried windows and a southern door, with a five-light geometric window at the east end. A vestry projects to the north-east with an axially mounted chimney stack.

The interior is defined by full-height chancel and tower arches. The walls are plastered with window quoins left bare, supporting scissor-braced roofing. Linenfold panelling extends to dado height on the east end wall. The nave arcade features double-chamfered arches springing from alternate octagonal and circular columns with bell capitals. An organ chamber opens to the chancel from the north-east, and an internal timber and glazed porch with brattished cornice stands at the west end.

The church contains a significant set of nineteenth and early twentieth-century fittings. These include a gilded triptych reredos with painted figures in quattrocento style, choir stalls in linenfold matching the east end panelling (given as a First World War Memorial), and a polygonal stone pulpit with nook shafts matching an octagonal stone font. The fine east window is believed to be by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, whilst a north aisle window is by Hardman & Co.

The foundation stone was laid in 1855, with the chancel and nave consecrated in 1858. Funding came partly from the Incorporated Church Building Society, with the work inspected on completion by Ewan Christian for the Commissioners. Heywood Alderley was the builder, with J. & J. Longton of Stockport undertaking timberwork and decoration. The tower and spire were built by Mr. Forrester of Stockport in 1866.

Joseph Stretch Crowther (1832–1893) was a notable pioneer of the Gothic Revival. Articled to Richard Tattershall from 1832 until 1842, he became managing clerk and subsequently partner to Henry Bowman in 1846. This partnership resulted in accomplished churches in the second half of the nineteenth century, primarily in Middle Pointed style, and the publication of a two-volume work, Churches of the Middle Ages (1845 and 1853), which favoured the Decorated or Middle Pointed style of Gothic architecture, particularly that found in Lincolnshire. Crowther developed a leading church practice in Manchester, working on St. Phillip's, Alderley Edge (1853–57), St. Mary's, Hulme (1856), and St. Nicholas, Beverley (1877–80), and became responsible for restoration and partial rebuilding of Manchester Cathedral and restorations and extensions of numerous other churches.

In 1991 the benches to the west end were removed and curtains used to screen off the rest of the church. The south porch was blocked to form a toilet.