Ivy Cottage Mission Hall, Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury

This building, situated on the corner of Barlow Moor Road and Hesketh Avenue, was built in 1899 for Oliver Brockbank, a metal merchant, to house a Bible Class he had started in 1893. He required it to be built on the principles laid down for Solomon’s Temple in the Old Testament - "neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was building". Consequently, no nails or screws were used in the joinery. Hartwell, Hyde and Pevsner draw attention to the auditorium with powerful hammer-beam trusses, the excellent joinery and the stained-glass depicting ivy leaves. An extension has a rain hopper with the date 1904, so one assumes this was also the work of Swarbrick. The building now functions as an Evangelical Church. – Richard Fletcher