Heritage and history
The history of Ashton-under-Lyne in five churches
St Michael and All Angels
'Ashton parish Church'
Domesday Book of 1086 mentions a Church called St Michael in our town, but there may have been a church here centuries earlier. St Michael's Parish was created in 1251 and the church was also mentioned in a papal bull of 1291,
The current building was started in the 1440s, and some of its fabric remains to this day.
It joined the Parish of the Good Shepherd in 2008.
St Peter's 'New' Church
West end, Ashton
St Peter's was built as the 'Commissioner' Church for Ashton and formally opened in 1824. The Government paid £10,000 toward its cost.
The nickname for these new state-funded churches was 'Waterloo Churches', explaining why the nearby district that housed the workmen is today called 'Waterloo'.
St Peter's joined the Parish of the Good Shepherd in 2016.
St Gabriel's Church
Cockbrook, Ashton
St Gabriel's was built as the daughter Church of St Michael's in 1912. It was originally made of corrugated ion -- a so-called 'tin tabernacle' -- but the metal was encased with brick in 1952.
It joined the Parish of the Good Shepherd in 2008 and assumed the full legal status of a Parish Church at the same time.
Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity was built in 1878 by a local mill owner on land donated by the 7th Earl of Stamford and Warrington. From the start, it was designed to accommodate the Anglo catholic movement in Ashton.
The church joined the Parish of the Good Shepherd in 2008.
