Fairfield Moravian Church and its surrounding settlement was founded in 1785 by Benjamin La Trobe as a centre for evangelistic work in the Manchester area. Numbers 15, 28 and 30 Fairfield Square are Grade II listed buildings. Fairfield is in Droylsden, part of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England.
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In 1742 the Moravians established a headquarters for their evangelistic work in the North of England at Lightcliffe near Halifax in Yorkshire. At the request of James Taylor and John Wood of Cheshire, evangelists moved to work in the Manchester area.[1] In 1751 a congregation was established in Dukinfield, Cheshire, with a small settlement following there in 1755. This was to be the centre of a preaching mission on the western side of the Pennines. However, there was limited scope for expansion at Dukinfield and in 1783 the Moravians purchased sixty acres of land in Droylsden on a 999 years lease from a Mrs Greaves at Broad Oaks Farm and from her neighbours, Mr Saxon and Mr Kirkenhead.[2] This was to become Fairfield Moravian Settlement.
The architect of the new settlement was a member of the Moravian Church, Br John Lees, who came from Clarksfield, Oldham.[3] There is some evidence that Br Lees, who was a businessman, may have sold two coal mines in his possession to help pay for the expenses of building Fairfield. Other finance came from Moravian congregations in England, Germany and America. The cost was £6,000 in total.[4]
On 9 June 1784, the foundation stones of chapel and choir houses were laid. A declaration was placed in the stone of the chapel, in which the settlers expressed their desire 'to be separated from the world and its seductions ... and ... to enjoy true fellowship as children of God', to serve the 'propagation of His Gospel among Christians and the Heathen' and asserted their 'adherence to the Word of God as contained in the Old and New Testaments, and the Augsburg (or Augustan) Confession'.[5] (The Augsburg Confession contained the core doctrines of the Lutheran Church, by which the Moravians had been much influenced during their time of renewal at Herrnhut on the estates of Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Saxony, Germany in the 1720s.)
By May 1785, the ‘choir houses’ and thirteen dwelling houses were completed and tenanted.[6] It was a feature of Moravian settlement life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that members were grouped into three choirs (i.e., communities): married; single brothers; and single sisters. The single brethren would occupy shared accommodation and also work together within the settlement as would the single sisters in their house.
The chapel was consecrated in a private service on 15 July 1785. On this occasion, a new single sister from Oldham was received into the congregation and Br Joshua Sutcliffe was ordained deacon by Bishop Tranaker. The bishop had travelled over from the Fulneck settlement in Yorkshire for the occasion.[7]
The public opening of the chapel took place on Sunday 17 July. Some 1,500 people attended Morning Service. This began with a ‘musical ode’ performed on the new organ by Br Christian La Trobe supported by the united brass bands of Fulneck and Fairfield. (The use of brass instruments in worship is a Moravian characteristic now largely defunct in England but alive in Germany and the United States.) Br Benjamin La Trobe preached a sermon on Matthew 28: 19-30 in a service lasting over three hours.[8]
Benjamin La Trobe, of Huguenot descent,[9] was the ‘Provincial Helper’ or superintendent in charge of the Moravian work in the United Kingdom, reporting back to the Unity (i.e., international) Headquarters in Herrnhut, Germany. La Trobe’s son, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, went on to be Architect of the Capitol of the United States in Washington, DC.
In 1785, membership at Fairfield stood at 110 souls. Twenty two men lived in the Single Brethren’s House and forty five women in the Single Sisters’ House.[10]
The congregation was overseen by an Elders Conference consisting of the Minister and his wife, the Single Brethren’s Labourer, the Single Sisters’ Labouress, a member of the Married Choir and, later, two elected representatives of the congregation.[11] In turn, the Elders appointed a College of Overseers to manage the settlement. This dealt with repair of buildings, maintenance of roads, street lighting and supervision of economic activity.[12]
Economic activities included weaving, baking, and saddlery by the single brethren; an inn (which was closed in 1848 because of drunkenness and reopened as a hostel in 1861);[13] and a farm, laundry and needlework shop by the single sisters. The settlement also maintained and operated its own fire engine. Later activities included brickmaking and cotton carding and spinning.[14]
The Single Brethren's House was not a success financially. Moreover, the young men had to be admonished many times for drinking too much at the settlement's inn; on one occasion, they appear to have had some fun at a fire drill by turning the hosepipe on a Br Gilpin who unfortunately took offence.[15]
In the eighteenth century, the chapel was called the ‘hall’. It was unlit and unheated. Hard benches surrounded a pulpit and communion table in the centre of the north wall. The sisters sat on the east side of the hall, near their House; and the brethren on the west side, next to theirs. When the Married choir came to church, the men sat with the single brethren and the women with the sisters. This practice continued until late in the nineteenth century. On the wall opposite the pulpit, there was a gallery with an organ in it; and a musical choir assembled there to sing the responses in the liturgy.[16]
The Fairfield congregation used the Lot when taking major decisions. These decisions included admission to membership and choice of a marriage partner. Following prayer and the posing of the question, the Lot was consulted by drawing at random one of three slips of paper. One slip would be marked Yes, one No and one was blank. The practice was based on biblical precedent and reflected the strong Moravian belief in Christ as the active and directing Head of the Church.
By 1815 the use of the Lot to determine membership had begun to wane. This may have been partly due to a harsh result on 8 May 1815 when a married woman, Hannah Kenyon, earnestly sought on her death bed to become a member of Fairfield. The Elders were satisfied that Hannah was sincere and nobody in the congregation had any objection; but the Lot said No.
Records show that in 1803 and again in 1810 six marriages were arranged by the Elders and confirmed by Lot. Anyone marrying outside of the congregation was asked to leave. However, by 1820 the use of the Lot to choose wives (it seems always to have been the Brethren who initiated proceedings) was also fading. It was retained for some more years for Ministers and pastoral Labourers.[17] As late as 1822, the 'Unity Elders sought a wife for a Br Light who was serving in Jamaica. Sr Mary Savile was thought of at Fairfield and chosen by Lot to which when informed, she accepted and ... sailed for Jamaica'.[18]
A burial ground known as 'God's Acre', surrounded by quickset hedges, was established in front of the church beyond a row of gardens. The congregation provided small uniform gravestones which lay flat on the earth, bearing only the name and age of the departed. This was an expression of the equality of brothers and sisters. Initially, the two sexes were buried separately in a post mortem continuation of the choir system. The sundial in the graveyard bore the motto, 'I die today, I live tomorrow'. Mourning was not encouraged and corpses were led to the grave by a choir of brass instruments as well as the Minister. At a sunrise service on Easter Sunday the congregation would meet in God's Acre to rejoice in the Resurrection.[19] This remains the custom of the Moravian Church.
A boarding school was established for girls in 1796 and another for boys in 1802.[20] The boys’ school closed in 1891 and the girls’ in 1919. The girls' school became Fairfield High School.[21]
The impulse of the Moravian Church following its renewal at Herrnhut was to evangelise. This did not entail proselytising from other churches. Rather, it involved two things: creating societies which would quicken spiritual life within existing Protestant denominations or among people who were unattached to any church; and taking the Gospel to those, especially in the Danish, Dutch and British colonies, who had never heard it before.[22]
Fairfield played its part in supporting the missionary work overseas: for instance, Mellowes (1984) lists seventeen brothers and sisters who within living memory had served in missions in Labrador, Jamaica, the Eastern West Indies, Ladakh in North India and Tanzania.[23]
Closer to home, Fairfield people in the nineteenth century sought to establish new congregations in several places. By November 1822 Br Lees had established a group at Clarksfield in Oldham, with preachers being supplied alternately from Dukinfield and Fairfield. In August 1825, this was formally established as a new congregation called Salem. In 1825 a group was also established by Br W Rice in Glossop, Derbyshire, but this eventually closed down with the adherents moving on to other denominations.[24]
In the 1840s, the congregation supported Scripture Readers in the Manchester Town Mission. This work involved visiting people’s homes and using the Bible to teach reading and writing. Br Chambers was assigned to this duty and paid ten shillings a week for it. In the 1850s and 1860s, Brn Hines and Gibbs carried this work on and visited 3,523 homes.[25]
The work of the Scripture Readers led to chapels being created at Edge Lane and Gorton Brook in Droylsden and also at Westwood in Oldham. There was also some missionary work in Liverpool. However, the only one of these projects to take permanent root was the one at Westwood, where a new church was opened in 1865. The Fairfield people were generous in their support of Westwood, giving a total of £600 and in 1871 writing off a debt of £550.[26]
A further instance of church extension in the neighbourhood of Fairfield occurred in 1899 when a new congregation was opened in Wheler Street. The nucleus of people was provided by existing members who lived in that vicinity. An iron church building was erected at a cost of £215 with the opening service taking place on 26 November.[27]
By the 1860s the old settlement life had largely given way to a new role as an open congregation drawing its membership from a much wider geographical area. Few of the residents of the settlement were associated with the church. Activities like dramatic performance that had once been regarded as ungodly were slowly being accepted. The social life of Fairfield was moving to a form typical of nonconformist chapels, with for instance by the 1880s a dramatic society, a highly active musical choir and a young men's club for billiards and smoking.[28]
The Moravian Theological College, which trained Ministers for the British Province and its overseas missions, moved to Fairfield from Fulneck in 1875.[29] This closed in 1958. The building was restored for use as a Sunday School and community centre and was opened in this new role by Bishop Geoffrey Birtill in July 1983.[30]
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