Block Lane

Block Lane (Black Ridings)
Block Lane (Black Ridings)
 Block Lane (Black Ridings) shown within Greater Manchester
OS grid referenceSD 90891 04195
Metropolitan boroughOldham
Metropolitan county Greater Manchester
RegionNorth West
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town OLDHAM
Postcode district OL9
Dialling code 0161
Police Greater Manchester
Fire Greater Manchester
Ambulance North West
EU Parliament North West England
UK ParliamentOldham West and Royton
List of places
UK
England
Greater Manchester

Coordinates: 53°32′04″N 2°08′20″W / 53.534327°N 2.1389014°W

Block Lane is a locality in the town of Chadderton in Greater Manchester.[1] It is located on Chadderton's eastern border with Oldham, contiguous with the Freehold area of that town, and with Cowhill and Butler Green.

History

The hamlet of Block Lane, also known as Black Ridings, lay on the ancient road of Block Lane as it followed the Oldham boundary southwards towards Butler Green.[2]

The hamlet was situated close to the present day Block Lane Surgery.[3][4]

By the mid 19th century the area had become a centre of industrial activity with four coal pits and two sandstone quarries in close proximity.[5]

The Hare And Hounds public house opened in 1855.[5] The pub closed in late 2014.

Blackridings Mill was a cotton waste mill on Block Lane dating to 1861. It was demolished in 1975. It occupied the site of the former Blackridings Colliery. The site was redeveloped in 1982 for Freehold Community School.[6]

1870 saw the opening of Christ Church, a grade II listed building.[7][8]

By the 1890s Block Lane had a bowling green and a football ground at the back of the old Black Ridings hamlet. At one time this was known as 'the track', a venue for foot races and wrestling. The ground was used by Werneth Rugby Club, who in 1890 were suspended from league rugby for 'professionalism'. The club disbanded in 1905.[2]

Christ Church

St John's Church, Werneth (closed in 1982) was the parish church for the Block Lane area from 1845 until 1870 when the new Christ Church was built by a group of laymen who were unhappy with the increasing ritualism at St John's. They appealed for funds in February 1870 to build a new church 'on the lower side of the Freehold adjoining Suffolk St at its junction with Oxford St and Block Lane' a church which they planned to 'secure a permanent Evangelical ministry, and to meet the spiritual needs of a rapidly-growing population.' The funds were so quickly forthcoming that the foundation stone was laid in May and the new church was completed and opened by December of that same year, and the first vicar the Rev'd Thomas Chapman took his inaugural service on Christmas Day 1870.[9]

Christ Church in time planted a new church on Denton Lane, St Saviour's, which still exists in the 21st century; it also planted Emmanuel Church just off Drury Lane which still exists but now meets at its St George's building on Broadway, and it began a work at St Gabriel's Middleton Junction which became a parish in its own right, and is still a going concern. In addition it planted mission churches at Butler Green and at Cowhill which ceased to exist in the 20th century.[9]

Christ Church itself still meets in its original building on Block Lane well into the 21st century, but with the addition of a church centre alongside the church on the site of its former day school, and it has a voluntary aided primary school (also called Christ Church) just off Denton Lane on Crawley Way as well as its sister church of St Saviour's and a growing work on Crossley Estate known as Crossley Christian Centre. Christ Church is numerically one of the largest parishes in the Oldham West deanery of Manchester diocese with a population of about 15,000 at 2015.

References

  1. ↑ "The parish of Prestwich with Oldham - Chadderton | A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5 (pp. 115-121)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 P.26 Chadderton Pubs And Their Licencees 1750 - 1999, Magee Rob (1986) ISBN 978 185216 134 7
  3. ↑ "Block Lane Surgery Home". Blocklanesurgery.co.uk. 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  4. ↑ "the online repository of historic maps - maps page". Old-Maps. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 P.29 Chadderton Pubs And Their Licencees 1750 - 1999, Magee Rob (1986) ISBN 978 185216 134 7
  6. ↑ P53 Gurr, Duncan; Hunt, Julian (1998), The Cotton Mills of Oldham, Oldham Education & Leisure, ISBN 0-902809-46-6
  7. ↑ "Christ Church". Christchurchchadderton.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  8. ↑ "Listed Buildings in Chadderton". Chadderton-historical-society.org.uk. 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Sidney F Cornell "The History of Christ Church Chadderton" 1920

External links

Neighbouring localities.
Cowhill Cowhill Werneth
Nimble Nook Freehold
   Block Lane  
Whitegate Butler Green Top of Hollinwood