Chapel Building, Loreto College

Details

698-1/0/11157
29-NOV-01

CHICHESTER ROAD
Chapel Building, Loreto College

II

Roman Catholic chapel. Building began c1874, completed c1876.
Herbert Edward Tijou was the architect. The builder and contractor was James Herd of 69 Bristol Street, Hulme. Sanctuary mosaic of 1946 by Ludwig Oppenheimer of Old Trafford. Victorian Gothic style.
Grey, orange and red brick in header bond with stretcher decorative bands, moulded brick window surrounds; panels of diagonal patterned brickwork below the upper [chapel] windows. Painted stonework bands, window tracery, east end cross, hoodmoulds with head stops [paired male and female, representing church, monarchy, etc.] Moulded stone eaves cornice, projecting rainwater spouts, blue slate roof, pyramidal at east end surmounted by metal cross, pierced ridge tiles. A painted stone dedication panel at the east end: '+ SSMO / CORDI JESU / DEI PARAE / in / DOMO LAURETANA / ET / BEATO / MICHAELI / ARCHANGELO / DICATA'
Two tall storeys, canted east end, gabled west end with lower west stair and organ loft bay. 5 bays, including the west staircase bay with organ loft above; the chapel standing high over ground floor. The south side, attached to the original convent house, has a side wall chimney, reduced in height. The north side ground floor is obscured by the college reception area of the 1970's. The brickwork here has been plastered and painted; an arched recess gives access to stairs down to the ground floor; a second archway to the rear [west] corridor and chapel staircase.

Interior. The chapel is reached from the west end bay with timber straight-flight staircase [late C19 with turned balusters], wood block floor, stained glass west wall stair window of 8 lights: religious figures in frames with foliage. A holy water stoup to left of the chapel entrance, and stone steps to the organ loft in the north wall.
The wooden double entrance doors are original, with large panels, elaborate brass fittings. Chapel floor obscured by carpeting; 2 steps up to sanctuary and 1 more step to altar. The chapel is richly decorated throughout with tiling, moulded stone strings, and mosaics. Glazed tiles are ornamented with quatrefoils and raised lettering: 'M' and 'IHE'; a stone moulded string at head height is continued round the west, north and south walls, over entrance door and south side-chapel and vestry door, but not across the east end. Above this a tiled band in green/brown with fleurs de lis, moulded string and brown tiles above. The upper levels are decorated with mosaics up to eaves level: rectangular framed panels of cream, with blue motifs and symbols including chi-rho and crosses. The stations of the cross on the side walls. The east end mosaics represent walling and cusped lights opening to a starry sky, and there is a row of portrait heads looking down from an impost frieze; a tall central arch is surmounted by a dove.
Low stone corbels carved with angels holding musical instruments and scrolls in high relief support ribbed and boarded timber roof.
Four 2-light nave windows on the north side, one on the south side, and two 2-light sanctuary windows flank the reredos. Stained glass with fruit and flower motifs in the side walls, and lettering recording donations by: Robert and Josephine McCuchion, Anna and Rachel Woodcock, Francis and Emma Noble, Anna and Carolus Whittacker. At the east end: the Annunciation with the words: 'Orate pro benefactibus nostris' and the Assumption with the same words. Figures in canopies, quatrefoil above. The altar and reredos [brass plaque at left end records donation: 'Martha Donadio'] in the form of a high and elaborately carved canopy with niches containing crucifix and angels holding symbols of the crucifixion. The south side chapel has a mosaic representing a nun and the Sacred Heart; a carved stone panel below, the altar not visible. A doorway in the west wall appears to link to the house. The large room below the chapel, probably the dining room, has three east windows with transom and mullion tracery. Moulded eaves cornice, blocked fireplace in south wall.

History.
Irish Roman Catholic families moved to Hulme in the 1840's and Canon Toole, Rector of St Wilfred's church, asked the nuns of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Loreto Convent in Dublin for help to establish schools in the area. The Order was founded by Mary Ward, [1585-1645] to provide a religious life for women dedicated to education. Six nuns from the Convent arrived in Hulme on October 3rd 1851 and moved into the Convent building in 1853. Margaret Mary Joseph Alphonsa Ellis [1825-1905] ran the Convent School from 1856 and was described as 'one of the leading Catholic educationalists in the Diocese of Salford. She was identified for over 50 years with every movement in connection with the primary and secondary education of girls.' [obituary, see below]
The chapel was built in 1874-76 and a High Grade School was established in a new building on the site in the 1880's. The nuns were also involved in six primary schools in the area. In 1899 a centre for pupil teachers was established, and by 1905 the buildings on the site included a flourishing boarding and day secondary school as well as the pupil teachers' centre. In that year the Mother Superior was succeeded by Mary Joseph Alphonsa Ellis [1849-1910] who in her five years oversaw new buildings at Loreto. 'The new buildings at Loreto speak for themselves, a standing memorial of her untiring thought and energy' [obituary].
The school became a Direct Grant Secondary School for Girls in 1921 and between 1944 and 1977 was a Direct Grant Girls Grammar School.
The buildings are reported to have been damaged by bombing in World War II, [1939-45] and the chapel sanctuary mosaics were completed in 1946.
As part of a major reorganisation of Catholic education in the City of Manchester the school became the Loreto co-educational 6th-form college in 1977.
The Loreto Sisters of the Order of the IBVM continue to run colleges throughout the world.
The chapel architect, Herbert Edward Tijou [d.1885] was a pupil of Francis Thomas Dollman [1812-1899]. He also designed: Lea Grange, Blackley; St William's church; St Wilfrid's schools in the Manchester neighbourhood; St Mary's presbytery and school, Swinton; St Mary of the Angels RC church Levenshulme, 1882-3; St Andrew's church, Monton Road, Eccles [tower by J.S.Crowther]. His address was 9, Clarence Street, Cheetham in 1868.

Sources.
Pers. Comm. The Provincial Bursar, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters), Altrincham.
'Welome to Loreto College' leaflet by Tom McGee, nd.
Obituary of Rev.Mother Margaret Mary Alphonsa Ellis, Superioress of Loreto Convent, Hume. In 'Harvest'1905 v.6 p.170.
Obituary of Rev.Mother Mary Joseph Alphonsa Ellis in 'Harvest' 1910, v.23, p.110
RIBA Transactions 1886 [obituary of Tijou]

Listing NGR: SJ8331996104

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