I had a visitor today, Brian Longden, a gentleman who had once been in the choir at Old St Georges Church. He brought around a few photos for me to copy and share on the blog. Wasn’t that kind? I’ll also add the photos to the relevant posts about the church and churchyard but wanted to get them up now so that regular reader can see them straight away.
Above is the third, and final, Old St Georges Church, Cockerhill. The photo was taken pre 1939 as the churchyard railings are shown and these were taken down and smelted in World War II. I love the street lamp. Cocker Hill still has a number of old street lamps, but none as nice as this.
Above is the same church building. I think this photo was taken in the late 1960s just before demolition. The illuminated cross, shining out over Stalybridge was well known at the time. Someone recently commented on facebook that they were glad when the church and the cross were demolished as they interfered with the TV reception locally!
This is the interior of the church, it’s very grand isn’t it. The windows must have looked spectacular. I understand that the choir were either side of the pulpit, male choristers on one side women on the other.
This font has now been moved to New St Georges Church, but is pictured here in its original home at Old St Georges.
NOTE Photos copied and reproduced by kind permission of Brian Longden.
As usual, please read the comments below and add your own if you have any memories of or connections to Old St Georges Church or Cocker Hill in general. I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks
I was born and lived on Cocker Hill from 1951-1967 when the Faricy family moved from Clive House, Cocker Hill, up the small hill opposite St George’s church. We knew Mr Cook, from St George’s and his son Brian was a very good friend of my sister’s. I remember going inside the Church only one time, Mr Cook let us stand just inside the door and your picture of the interior is just as I remember it! Walking home at night in the dark past the churchyard always terrified me! Clive House was demolished and some new houses have recently been built on the site – the views over Stalybridge and even up to St Peters church and school that all 6 Faricy children attended, were impressive. Some good memories! We were only allowed to watch TV during school holidays so reception was never a priority; sad when TV reception is more important to someone than a beautiful historical building!
Do keep this site active I love reliving my childhood memories. Catherine Peters, nee Faricy
Thanks for your comment Catherine, great to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed the photos. The church had been demolished before we moved in so I never got to see it; it looks as though it was lovely from the photos. I expect the windows looked awesome in the sun. It’s a shame it was demolished as the octagonal shape was very distinctive and the Church features on lots of the old photos of Stalybridge. I’m glad that the footprint of the church can still be seen so visitors can see where it was. The old graveyard is still a nice place to sit and much less scary to walk past now than I bet it was before. I’ve heard of Clive House before but not seen pictures, was it very old? I’m trying to work out where it was. Was it behind number 39? Which was I think known as the railway house. All the best, Steph
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Hi I’m interested to see the new photos of the church. I was a chorister there for many years of my youth. As you look at the photo, the ladies were on the righthand side, & the men on the left of the pulpit. I loved my time in the choir, & sat in those pews many times. I am ashamed to admit, that when the sermon became long & a bit boring, we used to play marbles, along the pew with mint imperials!!!! As you entered the church the bell ropes were on the right, & beyond them in the corner were our robing rooms. We used to have holy communion early in the morning, then wore our robes for Morning Service, & Evening Service.We also had Sunday School, in the afternoon, which was held at Old St Georges School, which I believe has now been demolished. My favourite bit was singing the Nunc Dimittis, as we walked out down the aisle holding our prayer books.This church played a huge part in the lives of all my brothers & sister.
Regards Hilda Scott (nee Moore)
Thanks for your comment Hilda, nice to hear from you. Regards, Steph/
Lovely to see these old pics of the church, wasnt it beautiful inside? I also never knew that the illuminated cross was a feature, that too must have looked fantastic shining out from Cocker Hill, Thanks Steph for adding these to your blog, keep in touch with this page regularly x Jacqui
Hi Jacqui, thanks for your comment. I will make an effort to post more things on here and keep it moving. I was really grateful for the new pictures. I didn’t realise quite how ornate the old church was inside. The windows must have been ace.
what wonderful pictures and history about the old St Georges church. What a beautiful church it was. So sad it isn’t there anymore. My mum lives on cocker hill almost opposite to where the church once stood, in one of the weavers cottages. My daughter was christened in the new St. Georges and I remember that beautiful font.
Thanks Jeanette, great to hear from you. Glad you like the photos. Steph
My Great Grandfather and his family are buried a Old St. Georges church, the gravestone is now laid flat. They used to live in Stamford Lodge and owned Atlas Works down by the canal.
Thanks for your comment; what was your Great Grandfather’s name? – I’ll go and have a look for the stone.
My dad George Flanagan was brought up on Cocker hill.He was part of a very lsrge family and they lived in a one up one down. Hard times.