Work starts on new church in Beswick

A ground breaking ceremony takes place on Friday 8th October to mark the start on site for the new Resurrection and St Barnabas Church, Eastlands, in Beswick, east Manchester.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Mark Hackett will join the Reverend Canon Roy Chow and local school children, community groups and regeneration officers for the ceremony.

It will include the ancient tradition of 'cairn' building using pebbles. Those attending will be encouraged to place a pebble and build a conical pile, each pebble representing a hope or prayer for the community in east Manchester. The pebbles will be buried in the foundations of the new church.

The £1.1 million 550 sq metre (6,000 sq ft) brick building with glass frontage, located on the car park of the former Bradford Day centre on Albert Street opposite the East Manchester Academy, was designed by APEC Architects and will be built by Eric Wright Construction. The parish continues to fund-raise to provide the building with new furnishings and worship materials which will cost in the excess of £100,000.

The 200 capacity church replaces the Church of the Resurrection in Beswick and St Jerome's Church in Ardwick and will be at the heart of the building which will also contain community facilities including a café and events space.

Revd Canon Roy Chow said: "We're very proud to have this new Church of England church here in east Manchester. This building will be very promient, encouraging integrated church and community activity. We now look forward to seeing the building complete and look forward to celebrating many happy occasions here. In fact we already have had enquiries for baptisms and weddings."

Eddie Smith, chief executive of urban regeneration company, New East Manchester said: "We have been working closely with Reverend Chow and the Diocese of Manchester to bring this important new building to east Manchester. A church forms the heart of any community and plays a vital part in both the social and physical renewal of the area. This is another key piece in the regeneration jigsaw that we're delivering for the residents of east Manchester."

Peter Guy, Managing Director of Eric Wright Construction commented, "We are extremely pleased to be working with the Parish of Eastlands to deliver the new Resurrection and St Barnabas Church in Beswick, which promises to create outstanding community facilities."

Naomi Fisher from APEC Architects said: "We wish the Parish of Eastlands and the construction team every success with building this exciting new addition to the area. We look forward to seeing it truly coming to life when it is occupied by this dedicated church community. The project provided an exciting opportunity for the parish to build a modern new church and community facility, not only to accommodate their needs, but to present a new 'public' face to the newly regenerated local area."

The building is due to be completed by next summer.

For more information on New East Manchester visit www.neweastmanchester.com