Stretford Cemetery, Lime Road, Stretford (Architectural Competition)

•  1st premium     Bellamy and Hardy, Lincoln
• 2nd premium     Mangnall and Littlewoods, Manchester
• 3rd premium      Mangnall and Littlewoods, Manchester

 A competition which attracted 33 entries including a number from Manchester’s leading architects, including Mangnall and Littlewood, Muir and Baldwin, F R L Edwards, Goldsmith Son and Welford, and William Dawes, Oliver Ayliffe, John Gibbons, F. H. Oldham, and W. H. M. Ward. It was eventually decided in favour of Bellamy and Hardy of Lincoln. The British Architect considered their entry to be amongst the very poorest submitted - “Whether we regard the committee who have adjudged the Stretford Cemetery Competition as evidencing their sense of art or of finance in the result at which they have arrived, they are entitled to our pity. From a purely artistic point of view their failure is lamentable, and it is rendered the more emphatic in that they cannot take refuge under the plea of financial considerations.” A century on, Pevsner described the chapel as “beautiful.”

 TO ARCHITECTS AND OTHERS - The Stretford Local Board are prepared to receive designs for a Cemetery Chapel, Lodge, Registrar's House, Office, Entrance Gates, and for Laying Out the Proposed Grounds. The Board offer premiums of £30, £20 and £10 respectively for the designs that may be selected. Plans of the site, and conditions of the competition, may be had on application to Mr Royle, 5 Windsor Terrace, Old Trafford, Manchester. Designs to be sent in on or before 21 April next. – By order Henry Whitworth, Clerk to the Board. Manchester 16 March 1883. [Manchester Guardian 17 March 1883 page 1] [Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 17 March 1883 page 8]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT INQUIRY AT STRETFORD - On Friday Mr. Arnold Taylor, one of the inspectors under the Government Board, held an inquiry relative to an application made by the Local Board for power to borrow £5,000 for the purpose of providing a cemetery for the district. The assistant clerk to the Board, stated that a site for a cemetery had been chosen near the Stretford Gas works, but had been abandoned for the present one, which was six acres in extent, and situate on the south westerly side of the Altrincham Railway and a quarter of a mile from Stretford station. There would be an approach road 470 yards in length and 14 feet wide. From borings taken of the stratification, the land consisted of soil and gravel to a depth of from seven to eight feet from the surface. The site was one the Board had had in contemplation far a number of years, and had at last succeeded in obtaining it from the owner, Sir Humphrey de Trafford. The situation was highly approved of by the inhabitants. The sum of £5,000 which it was proposed to borrow was only for the purchase and laying out of the ground, but hereafter a mortuary, chapels, and registrars house would be required, and these would entail a further outlay of about £1,800. [Manchester Guardian 23 April 1883 page 3]

A   special meeting of the (Stretford Local) Board was held at the Stretford Town Hall on the 24th ult. for the purpose of awarding the premiums for designs submitted for the building and laying out of the proposed cemetery for the district. Thirty-three designs had been sent in, and these had been examined by a committee who in the first instance reduced the number to nine, and afterwards to three. The premiums were awarded as follows: Bellamy and Hardy, Lincoln, £30; and Messrs. Mangnall and Littlewoods, Manchester, £20 and £10 respectively. [Manchester Guardian 6 June 1883 page 8]

No less than thirty-three sets of deigns were submitted in competition for the proposed new cemetery at Stretford, near Manchester. The final selection was made from the nine bearing the following mottos : Pro Mortius Nil Nisi Bonum," F. B. Paton, Bradford, Yorkshire; " Sepulcrum," Oliver Ayliffe, Manchester; " Well Considered," John Gibbons, Manchester ; "R. I. P." F. H. Oldham, Manchester; Cut Hole Bridge," Alfred Smith, Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire ; Corn Hills," W. H. M. Ward, Manchester; Faith," Bellamy and Hardy, Lincoln; “Experto Crede,” and Vita Brevis," Mangnall & Littlewoods, Manchester. The first premium fell to Messrs. Bellamy & Hardy, and the second and third to Messrs. Mangnall & Littlewoods. [British Architect 1 June 1883 Page 266]

 THE STRETFORD(MANCHESTER) CEMETERY CHAPELS COMPETITION - Whether we regard the committee who have adjudged the Stretford Cemetery Competition as evidencing their sense of art or of finance in the result at which they have arrived, they are entitled to our pity. From a purely artistic point of view their failure is lamentable, and it is rendered the more emphatic in that they cannot take refuge under the plea of financial considerations-—one which is so constantly set up in competition matters. The design placed first in this competition is amongst the very poorest submitted, and to find a reason for its position we are compelled to see whether such is discoverable from a "commercial " aspect.

The piece of land which is to be apportioned to this cemetery is a nearly rectangular plot, measuring about 580 feet long by about 460 feet wide, It fronts along one end to Hawthorne Lane, and is to have a special approach road into the other end.

"Faith," the first premiated design, lays out the land pretty squarely, and has only one entrance, from the approach road. The authors give 64 seats in the chapel. We learn from the report that the plans "comprise classification" — whatever that may mean — also that the cost of the buildings may be increased or decreased according to the will of the committee. The authors state they have had much experience, and have received no less than twenty premiums for designs such as these! The most extraordinary part of this design is the sheet containing a lithograph of entrance gates pasted on to it, which is what the authors propose for erection at a cost of £110. The models for this design are, we regret to hear, in existence, all ready for execution. We can only say that this is worse than the chapel and lodge designs, and they are nearly the worst set in the whole lot of thirty-three designs sent in.

Reference        Manchester City News 2 June 1883
Reference        British Architect 1 June 1883 Page 263-4
Reference        British Architect 1 June 1883 Page 266 – Competitions
Reference        Manchester Guardian 6 June 1883 page 8]
Reference        Hartwell, Hyde and Pevsner “Lancashire: Manchester and South East” page 652