Rochdale Heritage: Some of the best in the country

St Mary in the Baum

St Mary in the Baum church has been upgraded to a Grade 1 listed building. This is the highest level available and is the same status as iconic sites including Buckingham Palace and Durham Cathedral.

Architect Ninian Comper was a leading Anglo-Catholic designer and architect in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, who was renowned for the brilliance and thoughtful care of his designs for churches, their furnishings and stained glass windows.

For St Mary-in-the-Baum he delivered an ingenious and highly individual plan due to the complex and built-up site on which the church stands. The site is also the first church which clearly shows his fusion of classical and Gothic styles.

Nick Bridgland, English Heritage Designation team leader for the North said: “St Mary-inthe-Baum is an architectural gem. It is one of the best examples of Sir Ninian Comper’s work, who is one of the most significant religious architects of the early Twentieth Century. It survives with very few changes and is a tour-de-force of Comper's design skills in church fixtures and fittings and stained glass, which are exquisitely executed and demonstrate a high degree of craftsmanship.”

Only 2.5% of listed buildings across the country are Grade 1 - Rochdale boasts four Grade 1 listed buildings.

Other Grade 1 listed buildings across the borough include Saint Edmund’s Church, the Church of St Leonard in Middleton and Rochdale Town Hall.

Saint Edmund’s Church was funded by Albert Hudson Royds in memory of his parents, Clement and Jane Royds who had lived nearby at Falinge Hall, Rochdale. The church was designed by James Medland Taylor and is described as a “masterpiece” of Taylor’s. The design was influenced by a brief from the Royds family and also the design input of the first incumbent, Revd E W Gilbert.

St Edmund’s Church cost between £22,000 and £28,000 to build at a time when a church could be built for around £4,000.

The Church of St Leonard in Middleton is one of the earliest churches in Middleton and is blessed with historic features from the Saxons to the twentieth century era adding its mark.

Much of the present building was erect in 1412 by Thomas Langley. He re-used the Norman Doorway from an earlier structure to create the tower arch. The church was
completed in 1524 by Sir Richard Assheton.

Rochdale Town Hall is a Victorian-era municipal building that is widely recognised as being one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.

The Town Hall is built in the Gothic Revival Style and was built at a cost of £160,000.

The architect, William Henry Crossland, was the winner of a competition held in 1864 to design a new Town Hall.

Listing buildings helps acknowledge and understand our shared history. It marks and celebrates a building's special architectural and historic interest, and also brings it under the consideration of the planning system so that some thought will be taken about its future. Listing is not a preservation order, preventing change. It does not freeze a building in time, it simply means that listed building consent must be applied for in order to make any changes to that building which might affect its special interest.