Our Lady of Mount Carmel Wilson Road Blackley

An imposing building of 1907/8 on a prominent corner site, by a little-known local architect, who built elsewhere in the Salford Diocese, Bernard Holt of Manchester. The church was restored and reordered in 1965 by Greenhalgh & Williams who remodelled the sanctuary, with new marble floors, steps and decoration. They also added new confessionals, narthex and improved the sacristies. The high altar ensemble was retained intact. The east window is by the Hardman firm, in memory of Fr. Hayes who died in 1926. The Lady Chapel is at the east end of the north aisle. The apse is lined in mosaic with a starry sky and dove. The work could be by Ludwig Oppenheimer, who did similar mosaics in several Manchester Catholic churches.  The altar is of marbles with columns and incorporates a stylised statue of the Virgin, probably of interwar date. There is a war memorial and large Pietà dated 1912 in the north aisle.  [Greater Manchester Church Preservation Society]

The new church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Blackley was opened yesterday.  The church, which stands on an eminence facing Boggart Hole Clough, was erected at a cost of £5,000, and the furnishings account increased this amount to £6,000. [Manchester Guardian 7 September 1908 page 10]

Reference           Manchester Guardian 7 September 1908 page 10 – opening