A Day at the Manchester Universities' Catholic Chaplaincy

Interior of the Holy Name Church

This week I was invited to the Catholic Chaplaincy in Manchester. There were three reasons for my visit: to package up an architectural drawing, to assess the archival material housed in the church, and to give a talk in the evening.

Back in 2016 I had visited the Holy Name Church, which is attached to the Chaplaincy, to pack up just over 200 architectural plans and drawings which were being housed in vestment storage in the organ loft. These were transferred to the National Conservation Service to be conserved, before coming to the British Jesuit Archives for permanent storage. Despite being an extensive collection of plans that date from the early stages of the design of the church and beyond, we were puzzled at the time that there were no drawings of the tower, designed by Adrian Gilbert Scott, which was added to the church some 50 years after the church opened. Then, a couple of years later, I received an email from the then Superior to say that Scott’s design for the tower had been located.

Gilbert Scott's tower design

Earlier this year, I was in touch with the lead chaplain at Manchester, Fr Dushan, who mentioned that there was some archival material in the church which might be better housed at the Jesuit Archives. This seemed like a good opportunity to visit the Holy Name to assess the material and to package up the Scott drawing in order to have it transferred to the conservation studio. Thus, on a warm May day, I travelled up to Manchester.

The first task was to securely package the plan. We slotted it into a flattened cardboard box, which was just the right size to contain the drawing, and secured it with tape so that it is ready for transporting. I was then shown archival material in a couple of different locations. I took with me an environment logger to get snapshot readings of the temperature and humidity. It was a warm day, so the temperature was showing in the low 20s, which I’m told is unusual in the usually cold church! There were the types of records you would expect to find – sacramental registers as well as meticulously kept indexes, boxes of hymn books, but also several photograph albums and a set of the parish magazines which I believe is the only set in the province. There was a folder of authentication certificates for the church’s relics, and a box of miscellaneous material including photographs, sodality records, and accounts. There was even an old bottle which had once contained cognac, with a note explaining that it had been found under the church during the removal of asbestos-contaminated rubble in 2017. I discussed with Fr Dushan what could be done with the material. Some, like the sacramental registers, should remain with the church as is usual with Catholic registers, and they do receive occasional enquiries for baptism records etc., however they are currently being stored upright on a wobbly book case – storing volumes upright can cause damage to bindings, not to mention the potential hazard to the occupant of the room if the bookcase were to collapse! The other items, which are not routinely consulted, may be better cared for in the Archives. Fr Dushan and I discussed how, although the Archives are mindful not to appear as though they are removing materials, in this case, transferring the items would allow them to be properly packaged and made accessible to researchers—something that is not currently possible. I think there could be some interesting discussions about the parish magazines. They would make a good digitisation project, for example, and if the originals were to come to the Archives a copy of the digitised versions could be sent to Manchester, or vice versa.

One thing that stood out to me during this assessment was how vital it is to have someone who is familiar with the church and its history to consult. As mentioned there were several photograph albums and most of them had no labels. Fr Dushan had been a student at Manchester University and used the chaplaincy, so he is probably the most familiar with the building and the various changes it has undergone, and he was able to point out various things in the photographs that would not be known to us in the archives. So when this material is catalogued it would certainly be useful to consult with him for additional context.

In the evening I gave a talk on the history of the Holy Name Church in the chaplaincy. I was warned that attendance may be low due to the time of year – the university year is winding up and the students are busy studying for their exams. But there were ten people in attendance, which I’m told is a good turnout, and a variety of ages. I began with a brief overview of Jesuit, particularly British Jesuit, history, and how that lead to the Jesuits building a church in Manchester, and then went on to talk about the church and its people, illustrated with images from the Archives. A short history of the church, written for its 150th anniversary, can be found here. Afterwards there were some interesting discussions. Some of the older attendees spoke about their memories of the parish and the schools, and of the bombs that fell nearby during the Second World War (luckily the church survived relatively unscathed).

After the talk Fr Dushan and Sr Alicia FCJ took me on a tour around the block to see the other buildings that had once been associated with the church but had since been bought by the University, including the former presbytery, which is now named Vaughan House after Fr Bernard Vaughan, an influential Jesuit who was at the Holy Name for many years at the end of the 19th century, and the old Church hall. On some parts of the roof, wire had been put up to stop people from stealing lead from the roof inspired by lyrics in the song ‘Vicar in a Tutu’ by The Smiths. As a fan of the band, I was delighted to have this pointed out. The view of the church from the east end on Portsmouth Street is arguably even more spectacular than from the entrance on Oxford Road, particularly in the May evening light. We enjoyed the view of the church again over dinner in the garden of the bar next door!