Fairfield Moravian Church

DROYLSDEN FAIRFIELD SQUARE SJ 99 NW

4/76 Nos. 15A, 28 and 30 and Fairfield 17/11/66 Moravian Church

G.V. II*

Church, house and manse (No. 28). c.1785. Header bond brick with slate roof. 8-bay gallery-plan church with cross-axial entrance flanked on either side by lower 3-bay 2-storey houses with central-entrance plans. Stone plinth and eaves cornice. The church has a giant pediment over the central 4 bays which are slightly advanced. Central door with stone surround and flat hood and 2 doors with eared architraves and pediments. Tall windows in the central. 4 bays are enlargements (probably of 1908) of the smaller original windows which had stone sills and cambered brick arches and still exist in the outer bays. Marginal glazing bars with circular heads. Hipped roof with central bell and clock cupola. The symmetrical house elevations step back from the church and are virtually identical to each other. Stone steps lead to 6-panel doors with eared architrave surrounds and pediments. Each has 2 ground floor and 3 first floor windows with stone sills, flat brick arches and 4-pane sashes. No. 15A is entered through the right gable-end of No. 30. Interior: virtually all internal features date from a refitting of 1908. West gallery on slender Ionic cast-iron columns. Timber glazed screens. Central pulpit in front of an organ recess which is flanked by paired Ionic pilasters and pedimented vestry doors. Timber pews and panelling. The group forms the centrepiece of the Fairfield Moravian Settlement which is the largest as well as the earliest of its kind to be established in England. The doctrinal emphasis on Christian brotherhood and community living led to the establishment of the self-contained village by Benjamin Latrobe. It was planned around a square, with the church facing south over an avenue of trees, graveyards and gardens. J. Aikin, A description of the country from thirty to forty miles round Manchester, 1795. F.H. Mellows, A short history of Fairfield Moravian Church, 1977.

Listing NGR: SJ9016197617