Early Days

The foundations of St. Michael’s Parish, Hillock, under the auspices of Bishop Holland of Salford, were laid – in builder’s hut!

Hillock was built in three phases and as each phase was completed the workmen’s hut moved on and so did the parish Masses, for it was indeed here where the early Masses were celebrated.

The first hut was just off Mersey Drive. Mrs. Lamb tells us that old curtains donated by neighbours were used to cover the workmen’s coats, shoes and tools. “They looked like Joseph’s coat of many colours,” she added. The workmen’s dinner table became the altar and sheets were used as altar cloths. Joe Murty remembers that they “…had to watch out for nails” as they knelt down and Diane Musk recalls that “…the hut had a large fire burner at its centre…..to be late meant a seat by this fire and to be roasted alive for an hour.” Marie Mardy says that sitting round that fire was “like Christmas at Bethlehem!”

As the estate developed, the hut moved to Derwent Avenue and it was Mrs. Garvey’s job to light the fire before Mass started. It was here that Bishop Burke, the auxiliary Bishop of Salford, paid the “parish” a visit. Bob Johnson (St. Michael’s Matters) says that it was “…a happy, sunny day and the mud had dried, leaving the hut looking quite respectable!”

The third and last hut where Mass was celebrated was near Elton Close. It was at this time that evening Masses had been introduced and as winter approached and the days shortened, electricity was needed. Power was carried from a kind parishioner’s house nearby. Mr. Johnson smiled as he reminisced about the time when there was a power cut and “…light was provided from the headlights of a car by having it as near as possible to the hut and by lighting candles on the altar.”

Fr. Lyons, the first parish priest of St. Michael’s, used his Morris Minor Estate car as the parish sacristy and storeroom except for the confessional. This was constructed from two 6ft by 3ft sheets of hardboard and wooden frames hinged together. For many months this contraption lived in a garage and was transported on a car roof-rack back and forth to the hut each Saturday evening. One can imagine the puzzled look of passing motorists and pedestrians!

The key to whichever hut was in use was always left under the flag near the door. Using this, every Saturday a few energetic ladies – Alice Schofield, Ethel Kenning, Mary Morley and Miriam Lamb – with mops, buckets and disinfectant attempted to clean the hut. Bob Johnson describes the scene for us “…mud, dirty tables, benches and floors, muddy wellies, sometimes muddy pin-ups, pot and enamel mugs on rafter nails, muddy donkey-jackets, spades, shovels, half a sandwich and general clutter…” But the Mass was celebrated with great joy and reverence!

The early days were hard work but exciting and amidst the Hillock mud the parish spirit became alive. But the parishioners remember that it was through the generosity of Manchester City Council that the parish community was able to meet at all.

St. Michael’s Infant and Junior Schools were completed and ready for use in 1968. It was then that the parish had the luxury of celebrating Mass in a clean environment with electricity in the Infant School. Eventually, in 1969 the new Church hall, designed by L.L. Bellotti (Architects) and built by Arthur J. Franks Ltd. at a cost of £8000 became the home of parish masses and social events. This building was essentially a wooden structure in which approximately 250 members of the congregation could meet.

Most people on the Hillock Estate at this time were struggling to furnish new homes that were larger that those they had left behind. And it was the same with the new Church. It is reported that members of the congregation used to donate 15 shillings to buy a chair for the Church. Dedicated men such as Joe Murty, Joe Durkin and Bernard O’Connor helped to build up the parish practically and spiritually. Furniture that was no longer needed was collected from former parishes, such as St. Alban’s near the centre of Manchester, and George Sambrook, one of the parishioner’s, made the altar that has been in use ever since. The 4ft high crucifix that is still on the wall behind the altar was paid for by a donation of £25 from the Mothers’ Union and £4 from another source, known only to Fr. Lyons. The Moran family, formerly of Hillock Farm, on whose land the Hillock estate was built, donated a chalice to the parish.

Bishop Burke performed the ceremony for the opening of St. Michael’s schools and Church hall on 23rd July 1969.

The parish of St. Michael’s was up and running!

The Church hall, now the Church itself, was intended to be a temporary building, to last no longer than 25 years. The fact that it has served St. Michael’s community for over 30 years is a testimony to the architects and builders in that it has sustained spiritual and community needs for so long.

Over the thirty-four years that St. Michael’s has been in existence, the parish has grown, expanded and encroached in the area that encircles the Hillock estate and has officially incorporated parts of St. Bernadette’s and Our Lady of Grace parishes.

A new church

As far back as 1969, the field next to the presbytery was set aside in readiness for the building of the new church and money was raised through social events and Christmas and Summer Fairs. Since then several presentations were made to the Diocese for permission to construct a permanent place of worship, always with a less than positive outcome.

Diane Musk tells us that “we believed that a church would follow the church hall but despite Fr. Lyons’ dreams and the endeavours of Fr. Cunningham and Fr. Hughes we “were” still using the same hall.” Mrs. Chrissy Garvey a parishioner for thirty-four years speaks for many when she says that “I never thought that I would see “a new church” open.”

So, what brought about the change of heart? It all started at the Parish General Meeting in October 1993 when the parish community made it clear to their then new Parish Priest, Fr. Rowan, that they were annoyed, disappointed even angry that they still had no new church after twenty-five years of waiting. Fr. Rowan’s response was, “If you want it, do something about it!” The parish then, with Fr. Rowan’s support, did just that!

A new church planning committee was established. This committee re-opened discussions with the Diocesan Administration Board during which they made the case for the new church. The main tenet of the argument was that the twenty-five year old temporary church building was not going to last. This was ratified by committee member Barry Kavanagh in his capacity as a structural engineer. It followed that if there was no church building then the parish of St. Michael’s would not survive and amalgamation with neighbouring parishes was in the offing. That would have been “really grim” commented Angela Still. In its favour, however, St. Michael’s had a thriving Primary School and a parish school needed a parish church.

In 1994, after lengthy consideration, the Diocese decided to allow St. Michael’s to build – if viability could be proven.

The requisites laid down were:

• that the parish had to have sufficient weekly income
• it had to show that the parish was growing
• it had to have saved 75% of the total cost of the building

The Diocese had thrown down the gauntlet and the parish picked it up!

The weekly collection was augmented by direct debit donations and an extra Building Collection every month, by the 200 Club, by the ‘Buy a Brick’ promotion and by the covenant scheme. A parish census was taken and Mass attendances counted.

The greatest problem was deciding what type of building was needed in the twenty-first century, what would it cost and how could the parish raise the necessary 75%.

Bishop Kelly, on a visit to St. Michael’s in 1996, suggested that the parish should build the church “from the inside out” by looking at all the parochial needs – spiritual, physical and social – and then design a modern, vandal-proof building around those needs. “Bishop Kelly even took the trouble to draw us a pencil sketch”, John Green tells us. He also encouraged parishioners to visit other parish centres in order to clarify what would be best for St. Michael’s.

As a result, it was agreed that a church centre of 300 square metres would be required at a total cost of approximately £347,000. The parish now had a target to aim for.

From then on serious fund-raising events were undertaken. They included, amongst others, dances, sponsored walks, race nights, car rallies, jumble sales etc. The event that proved to be the most humorous was the Donkey Derby, whilst the most profitable without a doubt were the extremely successful car boot sales, particularly as they brought in money from a wider area. Angela Still recalls that these started very tentatively in a small way and grew to become one of the “big four” in the locality. But not only did they fill the building fund coffers, they put the small parish of St. Michael’s on the map. Whitefield now knew the name of St. Michael’s, where it was and that it was a force to be reckoned with.

The Diocesan Administration Board was very impressed with the raising of building funds, with the negotiating committee who, according to Fr. Bulfin, the Diocesan administrator, “were full of enthusiasm and seemed to have the pulse of the parish” and with the good case that they had made. Paul Keane, a member of the planning committee says that “we (the negotiators) were not going to go away … we collected facts and meticulously built up a momentum….we produced statistics from other parishes of a similar size….we showed that new houses were being built in the area….and that the parish was not dying.”

But in the ongoing absence of a bishop, as Bishop Kelly had moved on to Liverpool, making a decision was proving difficult. It was with “relief”(Paul Keane) then that on his arrival the new Bishop of Salford, Bishop Brain, committed himself to St. Michael’s cause when he expressed his view that the church building is “a sign of the community” and is a place where a priest could visit if there was a shortage of clergy. So it was in April 1998 that the Board finally gave its consent to St. Michael’s to build the new church at long last.

And only 50% of the costs had to be met before the building began!

Everything moved very quickly from then on. Three architects’ plans were posted in the church for the parishioners to peruse and the one designed by Greenhalgh and Williams was chosen. The parish was persuaded by the Diocese to opt for this design in preference to the parishioners’ first choice, primarily for security reasons. The tender by the builders Carefoot was accepted and in January 2000 the first sod was turned. St. Michael’s new church was on its way! Back once again to the mud!