Talk on George Street Chapel - 16 January, 2013

Roy Lees is giving a talk to Oldham Historical Society on Wednesday, 16^th January at 19:00, at Oldham Local Studies and Archives Centre.

The talk will be on - 

'The beginnings, the history, the people, and the renovation of George Street Chapel with its cellar dwellings.'

Pipe Organ Research - names associated with maintenance

Our recent dismantling of the pipe organ has uncovered a number of names associated with the building and maintaining of the organ.
We haven't yet discovered who it was originally made for, or where it was used but believe it was relocated to George Street Chapel about 1874.
Keys of the manuals are stamped with both the name of the maker, GW MOORE and the company for whom he worked was R&M DAWSON. The manuals are numbered sequentially 590 and 591.
It seems the original order number may have been 21, which might help with tracking down who made it and for where.

A business card was found which suggests that work was carried out around 1911 by J.P. CROFT, Organ Builder, of 98, Coombrook Street, Manchester (formerly of 66 Oxford Street, Old Trafford, Manchester). Could this be Cornbrook Street?
We have now discovered that JP Croft acted as executor to the will of George Benson, Organ Builder, in 1917 who had premises at 60 Cornbrook Park Road, City Road, Manchester.

A pencil note left on the lead weights over the keys of one of the manuals tells us that the organ was CLEANED & OVERHAULED in FEB 1914 by J. BATH and H. BARLOW.

Roy Lees has already tracked down JP Croft through Census Returns to the address on his card but we have a lot more work to do to associate all the names now linked to the organ.
More information to follow as we uncover it. Or, if you have information that can help, please leave us a message.

Pipe Organ Detailing

We have started to look at the paint work on the pipes of the pipe organ, and to seek expert advise on their restoration. The original paint work is far grander than the over painted light grey suggests.
the paint analysis has been carried out by Hirst Conservation.
More information to come as it is uncovered.

Friends of George Street December Meeting

The next FOGS, Friends of George Street, meeting will be held at Age UK office on wednesday 12 December. If you are coming along please RSVP to Maggie Hurley, Community Development Officer at Age UK Oldham.

So Many Bits....

The pipe organ at George Street Chapel has been dismantled and made ready for transportation to Huddersfield and the workshop of David Wood Organs. There it will be given a good clean and conservations work will begin. We uncovered some new facts about the history of the organ during the dismantling operations, which will be reported on later once we have made some further research enquiries about the names and dates that have been found stamped and scratched on the organ parts or on a business card found inside the organ.

Pipes ready for transport.

David Wood Organs, Huddersfield
left to right: Paul Rayner, David Wood, Michael Hynes, Michael Leadbeater

Dismantling our Organ

Log in for a report about the dismantling of our pipe organ that is taking place from Monday 26 November.

My Own Story

To understand the social background to the lives and living conditions of people in Oldham and surrounding district there is a wealth of written material to study. Some of these experiences influenced people who lived in George Street or became Independent Methodists. On-line publications enable many out of print books to be easily accessed.
My Own Story is the autobiography by Emmeline Pankhurst.
In it she describes the background to her campaign to get votes for women. She has vivid descriptions about how the poor lived and the social conditions experienced by many people. It is hard to believe that women only received the right to vote in elections in 1918 through the Representation of the people Act, but even then it was only granted to women over the age of 30.

Emmeline Pankhurst (born Emmeline Goulden) (15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was a British political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote. In 1999 Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating: "she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back." She was widely criticized for her militant tactics, and historians disagree about their effectiveness, but her work is recognized as a crucial element in achieving women's suffrage in Britain.
Born Emmeline Goulden and raised in Moss Side, Manchester by politically active parents, Pankhurst was introduced at the age of 8 to the women's suffrage movement.
In 1987 one of her homes in Manchester was opened as the Pankhurst Centre, an all-women gathering space and museum.

Oldham from a Distance

Julian Baum and Clair Duval of Take 27 spent another wet and windy day today trying to film a long shot of Oldham from a distance. Great cloud shots as the wild weather of 2012 continues into October, but just the right view. The idea is to try to reconstruct the view to show the countryside reaching right up towards the centre of the present town, as it was about 1815 when George Street Chapel was built.
Click on the link or browse the Video Bar to the lower right side of this blog.
A View Over Oldham

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Reconstruction Filming - first cut

Take 27 have made a first draft of the photo-montage filming we carried out yesterday, Sunday 30 September. The attempt to make 30 people look like a congregation of 150 is really taking shape.

Reconstruction Filming Day 30 Sept 2012

We spent all day today filming a reconstruction of a congregation at George Street Chapel. This will feature within our interpretation video, which will describing the history of the chapel from its construction to the present day. Our 'congregation' was made up of Friends of George Street and Age UK Oldham staff, friends and relatives. Many thanks to you all.
A short video of the filming day will be uploaded to our new 'FriendsofGeorgeSt' Youtube video channel. Link from the embedded video in this post, or the video bar on the right.
                                                          http://youtu.be/V5ahi_HChbk

Claire Duval and Julian Baum filming 'close-ups'.

Nomination for National Diversity Awards 2012

Age UK Oldham were nominated for an award at the National Diversity Awards held at the Midland Hotel, Manchester on 21 September.
The nomination was in recognition of twelve years of inter-generational work in Oldham.
The category we were in was for Community Organisations and split into different sections. Our section was for Age related projects, the others being Disability, Gender, LGBT and Race.
The Age section included two other nominees - the Asian Elders Resource Centre and the Northampton Youth Forum. The winners were judged to be the Northampton Youth Forum.
It would have been nice to have won overall, but, it was fantastic that our project was selected for the final shortlist and is national recognition for the value of the work we do in Oldham. By the end of next year we will be able to develop this work in the restored George Street chapel.

Our work was judged on a 10 week long inter-generational and ethnic project involving older people voluntarily visiting primary school children, sharing their favourite memories.
Maggie Hurley, our Volunteer & Community Co-ordinator praised the project for its success in allowing children to meet older people and boost their confidence.
The children have the chance to interact well with the volunteers on a one-to-one basis by asking them questions about their life and then publishing a brief biography for the school. One child was able to ask volunteer Haravadan Chauhan, born in 1946, about the time he moved to Britain from India and Kathleen Barnes about her famous cousin, Donny Osmond.
The volunteers are able to help show the children what their life was like. Edna Standring, who turned 93 this year, showed children an empty munitions shell like the ones she produced during World War ll.

Maggie Hurley and CEO, Yvonne Lee attended the prestigious awards evening, which was hosted by TV presenter and former Big Brother winner, Brian Dowling.

Extra, Extra - Cast required for filming

We are looking for people who would like to help us recreate the chapel as it might have looked about the time of its first centenary in 1916. Julian Baum and Claire Duval from Take 27 are producing film and 3d graphic sequences to aid  the interpretation of the chapel. The end product will fuse together photographs, live filming and 3d graphics and animations to tell the story of the chapel from its construction in 1815 through to the present day, and Age UK Oldham's work to restore it.
Do you have old clothes in your attic (or wardrobe?) that look as if they date to the first world war?
Do you look like this? -

George Street Chapel Congregation, 1916

Or can we make you look like this?
Cast required between 10am and 5pm on Sunday, 30 September, 2012.
Refreshments provided.
If you would like to be part of this project please book yourself in.
Contact Maggie Hurley to get yourself signed up - maggie.hurley (at) ageukoldham.org.uk

Paintwork choices

Lots of choices are being considered about all sorts of aspects of the chapel's refurbishment.

The current
dark coloured window frame

Artist impression of a
white coloured window frame 

The latest involved paintwork finishes for the window frames. The illustration below gives us an impression about how a light or dark paint colour for the internal window frames might look.

If you follow all the restoration work on his blog you will be see what the end product looks like. By then the organ will have been restored and repainted and the gypsum plaster will have been removed and replaced with a lime plaster.

Oldham - from Above

There are a number of images that remind us of what Oldham looked like in the recent past.
English Heritage have a project called 'Britain from Above' that has air photographs of Oldham.
This  photograph shows the area between St Marys Church and King Street and shows George Street.

Oldham town centre from the south, 1926.
We have picked out George Street Chapel with the red arrow.

Design Team Meeting 6 September, 2012

There were new considerations for us at our 4th Design Team Meeting today.
Progress on the design work is on track, with lots of discussions about everything that needs to be included in our tender documents for pricing.
Today we were able to see more details about the types of light fittings that could be used in the fitting out of the chapel.
Also more limited test stripping has been carried out on the woodwork of the pews and the pulpit, so that we could see the quality of the woodwork below the later over painting.
We were also able to see a decorative detail from the pipes of the organ that had been covered over by later painting. This has initiated further research into the original paint finish, so that we might consider re-painting the pipes of the organ back to their original appearance.

Choices.
Possible light fittings laid out on the chapel floor.

Bare wood of one of the doors of a pew.

The bare wood of the pulpit with over painting in recent black and grey paint
over the earlier wood graining effect.

A detail from of of the organ pipes with red and gold detailing.

A Short History of Independent Methodism

At our meeting of the Friends of George Street on Thursday evening we covered a range of topics whilst sorting out how the group could help Take 27 with content to go into a short video being incorporated into our interpretation material.
We talked through the time periods we needed to include, the characters required, age groups etc.
Locations were discussed, particularly for the opening shots, where Julian Baum wanted to have a view over Oldham town centre from the surrounding countryside.
As we talked about the chapel itself the idea of trying to show a congregation inside the chapel threw up interesting problems, particularly about clothing, hair styles and hats (or no hats) and the colour scheme within the chapel at different periods. We were interested to see if other chapels had also had a blue colour scheme at some time - like we have seen at George Street and at our visit to Goodshaw Chapel.
The difference between Independent Methodism and other forms of Methodism came up. If you want to read up about this, a pamphlet published in 1905 is now available to download from the internet. Click on the link below and choose the option suitable for you.




A Short History of Independent Methodism : a Souvenir of the Hundredth Annual Meeting of the Independent Methodist Churches.

The General Committee of the Independent Methodist Churches "decided upon the issue of the present volume and entrusted its preparation to George Hunter, James Vickers, and Arthur Mounfield.

The Oldham District is covered in pages 95 to 103.

A more recent book about Independent Methodism has been written by John Dolan.
Retail price is £25

Visit to Goodshaw Chapel, Lancashire

A field trip was taken to Goodshaw Chapel today, to look at how English Heritage have restored, maintain and display the only non-conformist chapel in their guardianship.
Goodshaw Chapel was originally built by its congregation in 1760 when Baptists united with Wesleyan Methodists. In 1864 a new chapel was built on the main road at the bottom of the hill in Goodshaw and this one gradually fell into disrepair. In 1975 it was recognised as a unique survival of an early nonconformist chapel retaining mainly of its internal features.
It was taken into the guardianship of the Department of the Environment and a full restoration scheme was completed in 1984.
Goodshaw is between Rawtenstall and Burnley, Lancashire.
Admission is free, but you must make an appointment with the English Heritage key holder.

Front entrance to the chapel.

Looking towards the pulpit from the back of the gallery.

The candelabra.
The pews in the gallery were left unpainted.

The gallery front with clock.

Research by English Heritage showed that the gallery fronts had once been painted blue.
Just like at George Street Chapel.

'Bats' provided for visitors to aid self-guided tours around the chapel.

The external stone walls have 'tipped' stones to help shed the rainwater and prevent water draining collecting and drawing damp into the fabric of the chapel. The walls have a strange 'saw-tooth' appearance. 

At least Age UK Oldham does not have to maintain a churchyard at George Street Chapel!

Paint Investigations

During the investigations to the cellar, gallery and roof samples were taken from various parts of the chapel to look at the history of its paintwork, by scrapping down sections.

Photographs of the chapel show it with a heavy wood-grained effect paintwork. The paint scrapes show that the golden/yellow graining covered a brown tone stain or paint, which was used over the original wood surface. The last owner had covered the graining effect with grey and black paint.

In the 1960's the chapel was given a brighter feel with the front of the gallery being painted a bright blue. The blue paint was then covered recently by the same grey and black paint used by the previous owner in the 1990's.

Newly inserted wood can be clearly differentiated from the original wood of the gallery front,.
The original wood at the bottom of the picture is covered by the woodgrain effect,
and then the blue paint scheme.
All is overpainted by the grey and black paint of the 1990's. 

We have also been looking at the organ pipes. The recent grey paint seems to be covering over earlier pipe work decorative features. The conservation of such paintwork requires specialist investigations and will need to be given further attention.

Close inspection of the organ pipes.

Careful removal of the recent grey paint uncovers purple stripes and gothic lettering, some with bright gold and red highlights, which will be looked at in greater detail by an expert conservator.

This great photograph of the chapel shows it after the blue paint had been used to brighten up the interior. However, the refurbished chapel will be given a fresh paint scheme that will suite the new use by Age UK, but reflect its Independent Methodist heritage. Over the coming months we will be visiting some heritage chapel sites to help decide what kind of scheme will suit the new new use for the 21st century.

 

Roof Investigations

Most of the roof structure is hidden from view behind a ceiling of lath and plaster.

There is a small inspection hatch in the north end of the chapel, which allowed access for a camera and lighting so that an inspection could be made of the upper part of the roof truss.

The construction is described as a King Post, or Crown Post structure, where a post rises vertically from a crossbeam to the apex of the roof.

A diagram of the roof will be posted later, and it will be exposed briefly during refurbishment as the slates are removed during conservation works.

Roof structure looking south (George St side).

Roof structure looking south (Jackson Pit side).

Gallery Investigations

Small opening up operations took place below the Gallery Floor to check on the connection between the support beams and the external wall. We needed to see if there was any evidence of rot where the beams were attached to the wall, and if there was any evidence for how the pews were arranged.

Lifting the floorboards of the Gallery

The supporting beams below the Gallery floor.

Cellar Investigations

In July two holes were dug in the cellar to investigate what was beneath the stone slabs.
we knew that the previous owner had lifted the slabs and relaid them, but we did not know if they had been  relaid  on concrete, with a damp-proof membrane, or just on the original materials. Damp rising between eth slabs suggested that there was not a good damp-proof system in place, and that if there had been one it probably needed some attention.

Ash fill below the stone slabs in the cellar.

The investigation has shown that the stone slabs were not replaced on a concrete base, and that there was no damp-proof membrane. The cleanliness of the fill suggested that it might be the original material from when the chapel was first constructed. Structural engineers from the Morton Partnership were also happy with the foundations that they could see below the gable wall.

Indications were also showed that the material was deep enough to allow for the insertion of an underfloor heating system.

More studies - paint and roof space

Over the last two weeks more investigations have been carried out in preparation for going out to tender for our Capital Works, and to help us make decisions about  aspects of our design.

Photographs of these aspects will be uploaded separately and labelled - paintwork, roof and cellar floor so that readers can go back through our archive and see how each part of our project progresses.

1. Small sections of paint were removed to look for evidence about how the chapel would have looked before all the surfaces were given a wood grain effect.

2. A study was made of the roof cavity between the lath and plaster ceiling and the slates.

3. Two of the stone flags in the cellar were lifted so that our Structural Engineers would have confidence in  the structural support of the chapel and to help design the proposed under-floor heating system

Coins for a Chapel Time-line

Do you have any pre-decimal currency ?
We would like to build up a time tine for the chapel through coins. The chapel has lived through the reigns of nine monarch going back to King George III, though by the time the congregation started to build the George Street Chapel he was in fact seriously ill and his son reigned as Prince Regent from 1811 until George's death in 1820.

The chapel was built between 1815 and 1816 - it has seen the reigns of -
George III      1760 - 1820
George IV      1820 - 1830
William IV     1830 - 1836
Victoria          1837 - 1901
Edward VII    1901 - 1910
George V        1910 - 1936
Edward VIII   1936 (abdicated)
George VI      1936 - 1952
Elizabeth II     1952 to present

Today we only have coins with a single monarch on them, Queen Elizabeth II.

But before decimal coinage was introduced we all would have had coins with the heads of up to five British monarchs going back to Queen Victoria.

1d coins minted during the reigns of Victoria, Edward Vll, George V, George Vl, Elizabeth ll 

As part of our educational programme we would like to re-introduce the type of arithmetic that children used to have to master at school - 12 pennies to a shilling, 4 thruppeny pieces to a shilling, 20 shillings to one pound - to say nothing of half-pennies and farthings, six penny pieces, shillings, florins, half-crowns, 10 shilling notes and guineas !!
Do you remember all the slang terms or sayings - tanner, 'bob-a-job week'', 'penny-for-the-guy', Lsd?
During the change over from 'old money' to decimal coinage old sixpenny pieces were used as 2 1/2 new pence coins.
Now, try working out 10% of 13 guineas?!

Wanted - farthings, half-pennies, pennies, three-penny bits, six penny pieces, shillings, florins, half-crowns, 10 shilling notes and pound notes.

Also, do you have any of those really annoying decimal coins you used to loose in your purse - New Pennies or Half-new Pennies which are no-longer legal tender.  All will add into the Chapel Experience.

If you can help, please drop your unwanted old coins into a local Age UK shop in Oldham and they will find their way to Maggie Hurley, Age UK Community Development Officer.
or post some to Age UK Oldham, Church Lane, Oldham OL1 3AN

Oldham Record Office

We held another meeting of Friends of George Street today with FOGS members who have been researching the history of Oldham and are contributing to the history of George Street Chapel. Most of the starting points for this research begins with the Oldham Local Studies and Archives, housed in the old Post Office on Union Street, Oldham.

Start-up Design Team and FOGS Meetings

In June we held the start-up meetings of the George Street Chapel project following the approval of the HLF award to the Age UK Oldham of £1m and a match funding award of £100,000 from the Andrew Lloyd Webber and English Heritage Challenge Fund administered by the Architectural Heritage Fund .

Match funding is still needed. Particularly towards the cost of refurbishing the organ.

The Project Team

Project Team
centre: Yvonne Lee - CEO Age UK Oldham
Age UK; Lloyd Evans Prichard; The Morton Partnership; HLF
photo : Andrew Fielding

FOGS

FOGS - Friends of George Street research group meeting with
Julian Baum and Claire Duval - Take 27
Maggie Hurley, Jeff Hinchcliffe and Yvonne Lee - Age UK Oldham
Andrew Fielding - A&A Fielding Ltd
photo: Annika Dawson - Age UK Oldham