Todmorden Parish Church, 1958 - TAL00405

Christ Church, Todmorden.

Around the year 1829 the vicar of St. Mary's in Todmorden, the Reverend Joseph Cowell, proposed that the church should be either rebuilt or enlarged at its present site. Another proposal was that it should be removed to another site in the town and a completely new church be built.
A new church was the accepted proposal and was to be built on the site of the new vicarage and cemetery, which had already been erected on land given by Samuel Greenwood of Stones. Lewis Vulliamy from London was the architect. The corner stone was laid at Whitsuntide on 29 June 1830 amidst great celebrations. A procession was led from the old churchyard to the new and many crowds of people had gathered to hear the speeches by the various dignitaries and watch the stone being laid.
The money for the building costs of the new church came from the Million Pound Act. This was an act which had been passed in 1820 after a survey had shown that no new churches had been built since the reign of Queen Anne. £1 million was allocated for new churches to be built in industrial areas for the middle and lower classes and the money was found from the indemnity money paid by the French after the Napoleonic Wars. They were built to rigid budgets and were very plain.
Building progressed rapidly and the new church, which came to be known as Christ Church, was opened on 15 April 1832. The Rev. Joseph Cowell was the vicar and had been the main instigator and driving force for the new church, a fact that he later came to regret.
There was a great division amongst the population of Todmorden and many thought that the new church had been built for the benefit of the rich and the clergy. One family in particular, great church goers, when asked why they didn't attend the new church, replied:
"You have not built yon church for Todmorden and Walsden folk, but for the rich and those who live up in Harley-Wood"
Maybe they were thinking of the terms of the Million Pound Act.
Pews had been taken from the old church to put in the new and the last thing to go was the organ. It was acts like this that so annoyed and upset the people and they looked upon them as a desecration of the church. When the organ was removed from the old church it had to be renovated before it was thought suitable to grace a brand new church. The cost was £85 and the re-opening took place at Christ Church on Sunday April 5th 1835. There was a grand concert and the singers were Miss Sykes, Mr. Tom Parker, tenor, and Mr. Womersley, bass. They were paid one guinea each, whilst the organist, Mr. William Greenwood, was paid 2 guineas.
Rev. Cowell, on hearing and seeing how the new church had split the townsfolk, was heard to comment that he acknowledged that it was the greatest mistake of his life, and that he wouldn't rest until he had restored the old church and had it reopened for worship again. In 1840 he was the head of a petition delivered to the vicar of St. Chad's, Rochdale, to try and make Christ Church into the parish church of Todmorden and to reopen St. Mary's. This would make them separate from St. Chad's, which would no longer be the parish church. It was argued that Todmorden had grown to a population of 10,000 and they could pay for the upkeep of both their churches.
The Reverend Cowell did not see his dream come to fruition as he died in 1846, but he was the first to plant the seeds of an idea, which would come to be a reality twenty years hence.

Extract from Todmorden & Walsden website.

AN 3413172X

Todmorden Antiquarian Society

1958

PHDA - Todmorden Antiquarian Society

Pennine Horizons Digital Archive

TAL00405.tif