The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Greater Manchester (now)
Parish church
St Mary's is a substantial church of 1858-60 by W. H. Brakspear, spacious within and equipped outside with an array of battlements and pinnacles. It has a W tower, a clerestoreyed, aisled nave of six bays, N and S transepts, and a chancel with an organ loft and vestry on the N side and a chapel on the S. The stone is a pink sandstone. There is a collection of loose stones in the N transept, including the Romanesque fragments described below.
Parish church
Middleton has, after the collegiate church in Manchester which later became the cathedral, the most significant survival of a medieval church in Greater Manchester. It consists of a pair of through arcades with clerestory, and a W tower heightened by a curious wooden bellcote probably around 1667, when new bells are recorded as being hung. The church's main interest is its heraldic rood screen, and stained glass commemorating archers of the Battle of Flodden Field, but also contains significant Romanesque fragments built into the late medieval structure.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Mellor stands in the High Peak on the border with Derbyshire. Indeed it was in Derbyshire until 1936 when it was reassigned, along with neighbouring Ludworth, to Cheshire. Recent excavations have disclosed an Iron Age hill fort alongside the church. St Thomas's was formerly a chapel of ease to Glossop in Derbyshire, and remains in the Glossop Deanery of the Diocese of Derby. The church has a 15thc. W tower, but whatever was to the east of this was replaced from 1815 to 1830 with a simple aisleless nave and chancel of brick. Something similar took place at Church Lawton. The only Romanesque feature is the font, one of the most interesting in the county.