St James Gatley
 

VICARAGES

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BEECHCROFT   Gatley Road Cheadle

Built about 1871

Vicarage for Reverend Herford until 1888

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photograph 1968 Frank Mitchell

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BEECHCROFT.

This house stood on the south side of Gatley Road, between the present Kingsway and High Grove Road. It was built about 1871 and was used as a vicarage by the Reverend Percy Mitchenor Herford, his wife and six children until 1888.

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Beechcroft was demolished in June 1973, and flats now occupy the site.

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MELBOURNE COTTAGE   58 Church Road Gatley

 Occupied by Reverend Bruster 1888 - 1894

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photograph 1893 St James Archive                              photograph 1968 Frank Mitchell

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The Reverend Bruster lived in Gatley for forty years. The first six years were spent just round the corner from St James Church at 58 Church Road. He arrived in 1888 with his wife and one daughter. Once the Vicarage at 11 Northenden Road had been completed in 1894 the family now with three girls moved out.

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photograph 2018 Martin G Davey

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II NORTHENDEN ROAD Gatley                           

Built 1894 Vacated 2006

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photograph c1901 St James Archive

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John Bruster was the first of ten Vicars of St James to live at 11 Northenden Road.

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In 1894 Reverend Bruster built a wooden shed with a brick fireplace in the garden and used it for printing his monthly Parish Journal. He not only wrote the text but set it up in cold type and printed it himself. The Journal was delivered free to all parishioners by children who received one half-penny per month. Mrs. Kathleen Meldrum, one of our older Church members (in 1979), was one of the children who delivered them during the 1914-18 war. Although the old shed was demolished in 1964, many will recall with pleasure the garden party teas prepared in it, with chairs set out in the orchard, and the occasion when Kyle Manning held a Youth Club exhibition there.

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photograph 1894 St James Archive

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Summer Garden Party 1971

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Reverend Canon Bob Read sent some memories of which this is an extract:

We moved into the old vicarage on Northenden Road (now Honeybears Nursery), a substantial building with a Latin text on the wall.  The house had six bedrooms – four on the first floor and two in the attic.  There were two large reception rooms, a study and a kitchen diner.  The cellars were often very damp and a continuing source of dry rot over the years.  The out houses consisted of a garage and two outside toilets (presumably in days gone by it was one for the head gardener and the other for general workmen!)   The extensive garden included a tennis court-sized lawn bordered on two sides by magnificent beech hedges, which produced beautiful golden leaves in the autumn.

Because the vicarage was so big for two people we opened up the house for use by the parish.  The large rooms easily accommodated committee meetings and even a full church council.   There were coffee mornings, afternoon teas, sherry parties and other social gatherings.  The highlight of each year was the vicarage summer garden party. 

2021 Revd Canon R E Read

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14 ELM ROAD Gatley  

Vicarage to Reverend Read & Reverend Carlisle 2007 - Present