St Chad's Roman Catholic Church

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 28 Jul 2012

St. Chad's is part of the Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury, comprising the adjoining villages of Cheadle and Gatley. St Chad was Bishop of Lichfield in the 7th century and Cheadle would have been part of his diocese. In 1874 a medieval preaching cross was found near the Parish Church of St. Mary. It is in the distinctive form of the cross of St. Chad, which is also found in the arms of Lichfield Cathedral. St. Chad's Parish began as a Mass Centre served from Edgeley. Mass was first celebrated in 1900 in a private chapel at Cheadle Old Hall which stood between Cheadle Institute and what is now Queens Gardens. Fr. Abram, the priest at Edgeley, purchased an area of open ground on Stockport Road between Bank Street and Jackson Street. A corrugated iron chapel was constructed on the site as a Chapel of Ease, dedicated to St. Chad. It was blessed on 2nd October 1904 and was served by the priest at Our Lady's Edgeley - first Fr. Abram and then Fr. McGreever. In 1928 Fr. Peter Lancelot Pears was appointed to Cheadle as the first resident priest. He quickly realised that a new church was needed to house the growing congregation. Bishop Hugh Singleton laid the foundation stone on 24th August 1930, and the church was completed and opened on 15th February 1931. At the same time Fr. Pears built a presbytery beside the church and he lived there until he left the parish in 1938. Fr. Peter Morgan replaced Fr. Houghton and continued to implement the changes of Vatican II. To encourage the participation of the whole congregation in the liturgy he brought the choir down from the loft into the main body of the church. By the 1980s the old iron church had passed its sell-by date and it was decided to build a new hall in front of the presbytery. This opened in 1984. In 2007 Bishop Brian grouped the parishes of the Diocese into Local Pastoral Areas, so that parishes could co-operate more effectively with each other and share resources. St. Chad's was linked again with its daughter churches, St. Ann's and Christ Church. http://www.stchadscheadle.com/

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