It's not often that you hear about a church being sold and moved to another location - unless a Dam is being built, etc. But this humble little church went through exactly that!
In 1931 at Featherstall, Littleborough; a rural area near Rochdale, it was moved and rebuilt using it's original external sheets of steel and fondly titled The Iron church! Although it's superstructure is mainly wood!
Hollingworth had a considerable Roman Catholic population but no place of worship.
So, for six thousand pounds it was acquired and moved to a hillside by Hollingworth lake.
The Name St Hilda's was suggested by Cannon Raines, whose grandfather had been a vicar at St Hilda's on the hill in Whitby and decided to keep the name alive.
In 1975 it was divided into two to be used as a meeting place as well as a Parish church.
In 1998 it was deemed unsafe and closed. And that's how it has remained.
After a tip off I did a bit of research and managed to find the area it was in but not the actual building, the road it is on is a farmers track with a dead end so we had to backtrack and try a different way. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted it so we parked up for a closer look. After a long walk and midges declaring WW3 on us, we finally got there and managed to find a way in.
The whole thing is very rickety and unsafe so full attention was required. I've never seen a place with such a long period of closure that hadn't been stripped of copper and other valuables - in fact it could have been closed yesterday!
It really was a treat to capture it and the last of the days blazing sun lit it beautifully.
Only a few windows facing the adjacent, occupied property were untouched, all the rest were boarded up.
After hearing knocking noises from what appeared to be Under the floorboards and one of my shots mysteriously blocked by Something - we decided to leave. All in all a Great explore.
On with the pics:
In 1931 at Featherstall, Littleborough; a rural area near Rochdale, it was moved and rebuilt using it's original external sheets of steel and fondly titled The Iron church! Although it's superstructure is mainly wood!
Hollingworth had a considerable Roman Catholic population but no place of worship.
So, for six thousand pounds it was acquired and moved to a hillside by Hollingworth lake.
The Name St Hilda's was suggested by Cannon Raines, whose grandfather had been a vicar at St Hilda's on the hill in Whitby and decided to keep the name alive.
In 1975 it was divided into two to be used as a meeting place as well as a Parish church.
In 1998 it was deemed unsafe and closed. And that's how it has remained.
After a tip off I did a bit of research and managed to find the area it was in but not the actual building, the road it is on is a farmers track with a dead end so we had to backtrack and try a different way. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted it so we parked up for a closer look. After a long walk and midges declaring WW3 on us, we finally got there and managed to find a way in.
The whole thing is very rickety and unsafe so full attention was required. I've never seen a place with such a long period of closure that hadn't been stripped of copper and other valuables - in fact it could have been closed yesterday!
It really was a treat to capture it and the last of the days blazing sun lit it beautifully.
Only a few windows facing the adjacent, occupied property were untouched, all the rest were boarded up.
After hearing knocking noises from what appeared to be Under the floorboards and one of my shots mysteriously blocked by Something - we decided to leave. All in all a Great explore.
On with the pics:
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