Methodist Church, Fulwood Road, Broomhill

Image: © Dave Hitchborne Taken: 6 Aug 2008

The building in the foreground is the Broomhill Methodist Church and it stands at the junction of Fulwood Road and Ashgate Road and was photographed from the bus stop on Manchester Road, the A57. The church is relatively new and replaces an earlier Wesleyan church of 1866–67, which was built in the decorated Gothic style, at a cost of £5,600 http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/escafeld01/Others/AshgateRoadChurch.jpg . That church had adjoining caretaker’s premises http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/escafeld01/Others/AshgateRoadHouse.jpg http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1141785 and was the home of my Grandfather and Grandmother. I also lived there from birth to about the age of three (1942–45) and was christened there. Both this and the previous church had a main entrance from Fulwood Road. The old church had access from Ashgate Road, the caretaker’s premises and another at the east of the building next to the boiler house. The entrance to the new church http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/988110 cannot be seen here as it set back between the two larger portions of the building, part of which appears to be living accommodation – that which stands to the right. A visitor to Geograph tells me, the accommodation attached to Broomhill Methodist Church is social housing and is administered by two organisations dedicated to providing homes for young women as they learn how to be independent. The old church had problems, which developed in the mid 1970s. There were signs of serious structural problems and to compound these, the spire was struck by lightning, during or around 1980. A structural survey was carried out, which found that the walls were leaning outwards allowing the roof to settle and so the church was demolished in 1982. The new church was opened on 15th February 1998.

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