St Mary's RC Church, Ashton-under-Lyne

[davidtuson]

Hi
My wife's mother apparently attended St Mary's R C school and church in Ashton-under-Lyne during the 1920s.
I am trying to find pictures of the church and school for that era. So far I have been unsuccessful, only finding one that describes the building as "Markzi Jamia Mosque, formerly St Mary's"
Can anyone help?
Thanks
David

[Woody]

Hi David

I think the building is still there in its original 'skin' but I also know that in the very near future it's scheduled for demolition in favour of a new traffic island !

I think the postcode is OL6 6EJ and if you paste that into 'Google Maps' you should get an arial view. I'll try to find some time to go and have a look tomorrow. Unfortunately, I might be too late - one of my favourite watering holes has already been flattened.

All that said, the members of the mosque might have kept photographs of the old building. It'll be worth asking anyway.

[davidtuson]

Thanks for the quick response Woody - I've followed your instructions and this is indeed the same building as the one I had found. I wonder if it ever had a bell tower?

[Gay J Oliver]

Hello David,

Woody is quite right in that the building may soon be no more, but I did find quite a lot of school photos for St Mary's on the Tameside Image Archive. Not photos of the school, which they don't show much of, but of class photos. Sadly there is no date attached to these.

www.tameside.gov.uk/leisure/new/lh23.htm

A friend of mine donated photographs of Tameside churches and there iso a very good photo of the church on this page of my website:

tamesidefamilyhistory.co.uk/ashtonchurches.htm

very best wishes,
GAY

[davidtuson]

Hi Gay

Many thanks for the two links - the second link shows the picture I had found previously.
The Image Collection link is great, my wife is poring over the class photos trying to find a little girl who resembles her mother - she is quite excited at the slight possibility of identifying her mother.
There is a second very interesting thing about the class photos - the name Nellie Platt appears as a pupil, teacher and donor. My wife's ancestors married into the Platt family so I now have another line of inquiry to see if their Platts were related to those in the class photos.
Quite a lot of research to keep me occupied during our winter months!!

Thanks for your help
David