---
title: "St Chad, Manchester"
description: "Located in Manchester, Greater Manchester. Built 1846–47. Diocese of Salford. Grade II. Perpendicular Gothic Revival style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Catholic Church","Greater Manchester","Manchester","Grade II","Gothic Revival","Weightman and Hadfield","Oratory"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/st-chad-manchester"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T02:15:16.969Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T18:58:12.887Z"
location: "Manchester, Greater Manchester"
country: "England"
county: "Greater Manchester"
town: "Manchester"
address: "Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M4 4EX"
postcode: "M4 4EX"
built: "1846–47"
consecrated: "4 August 1847"
architect: "Weightman and Hadfield"
denomination: "Catholic Church"
dedications: ["Chad"]
diocese: "Salford"
grade: "II"
style: "Perpendicular Gothic Revival"
materials: "Coursed rubble Todmorden summit sandstone (buff); slate roofs"
website: "https://www.manchesteroratory.org/"
openingHours: "Normally open Monday to Friday 6.30am to 6pm; Saturday 8am to 8pm and Sunday 7.30am to 6pm."
parish: "Manchester Oratory (St Chad)"
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1208542"
gridReference: "SJ 841 995"
accessNotes: "Ramp or level access available on request. Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets in church"
---

# St Chad, Manchester

St Chad’s on Cheetham Hill Road is a Grade II Roman Catholic church, now the Manchester Oratory of St Philip Neri, in the Diocese of Salford. It succeeded the discreet Rook Street chapel of 1776, the city’s first post-Reformation public Catholic place of worship.

## Overview

Historic England and Taking Stock record a church and attached presbytery of 1847 by Weightman and Hadfield of Sheffield, in Perpendicular Gothic, of coursed rubble Todmorden sandstone with slate roofs. The plan is a nave with south-west tower, north and south aisles, and a chancel with north and south chapels. The listing notes that this was the first new Catholic church to open in Manchester after the 1829 Emancipation Act, and that the 1847 opening was the first grand-scale Catholic ritual in the city for three centuries. Wikipedia gives the consecration date as 4 August 1847.

The interior has six-bay arcades on octagonal piers with embattled capitals, a hammerbeam roof, and an 1847 east window by Barnett of York depicting the life of St Chad. Restoration by Frank Reynolds (1949–51) and reordering by Greenhalgh and Williams (1965) removed the rood screen and created a narthex. From 1921 the church hosted Manchester’s Ukrainian Catholic congregation for more than three decades. Since 2012 it has been the home of the Oratorians; the Manchester Oratory was founded here on 1 November 2019.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1208542](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1208542)
- [Taking Stock: Manchester (Cheetham Hill) – St Chad](https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/manchester-st-chad/)
- [Wikipedia: Manchester Oratory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Oratory)