Prestwich Sloopy

23/01/2026

Howcaster Cottage & Singleton Lodge, homes to George Wood, Magistrate, MP in the reform parliament of 1832, JP, Deputy Lt. of Lancashire, and an inaugural vice-president of the Manchester Athenaeum (amongst other institutes), and his son William who married the girl from next door (Brooklands) and was also a magistrate. Later home to John Collinson who's father had established Wilson's Brewery and also home to George Cowell, head brewer at Wilson's during the English Beer Poisoning of 1900 (which claimed 70 lives).
prestwich.org.uk/howcaster

16/01/2026

Kids... get your elders to watch this "old" 1983 video of Prestwich and I bet they exclaim "I had a duffle coat like that!".
Roman Excavations, Rainsough. You (& them) can read more at Prestwich.org.uk/ancient

29/12/2025

Arthur Bradshaw's carnival float outside Prestwich Train Station.
You can read more about the Bradsahw family at prestwich.org.uk/roost2

21/12/2025

Merry Christmas from the St Mary's Churchyard Action Group !
& may the New Year bring you great joy!
If you're looking for a last minute gift for someone, how about gifting them a donation? Funds go towards the upkeep of the churchyard for everyone to enjoy. donate.prestwich.org.uk

11/11/2025

I've updated the St Mary's Poppy Drop Page with some casualty info and final resting places/memorials/Rolls of Honour/medals.
It's a work in progress, and if anyone has additional info/corrections feel free to contact me.
Prestwich.org.uk/poppydrop

06/11/2025

The St Mary's Churchyard Action Group (CAG) Volunteers braved the rain and slippy trippy churchyard this week to perform the Prestwich Poppy Drop as they do every year (rain or shine). Still, it was nothing compared to what Pvt Cooke endured during the rain drenched Battle of Passchendaele. One of 145 poppies delivered with respect and eternal gratitude. prestwich.org.uk/poppydrop prestwich.org.uk/cag

06/11/2025

Tim from the St Mary's Churchyard Action Group is walking 60 miles this month, raising money for Prostate Cancer Research :

Help Tim Ward raise money to support Prostate Cancer Research

04/11/2025

Elizabeth Street is a small street in Prestwich. On the 14th July 1916, John & Eliza White of number 13 lost their son George (32) at High Wood, near Mametz. Ten months later, their daughter Isabel lost her husband Willie Greenwood (37) at the 2nd Battle of Arras. Both are memorialised on the White family plot in St Mary's Churchyard, and appear on several local Rolls of Honour. prestwich.org.uk/poppydrop

31/10/2025

A post office opened up (1901) behind what was Union Bank of Manchester (Barclays, now Rudy's). A post office had been located between Warwick Street and Sherbourne Street (now Melissa Berry Estate Agents). In 1901 Prestwich had 12 post boxes, 12 postmen carrying out 5 collections and 3 deliveries daily. With thanks to Smith for sharing a postcard of his grandfather Richard Topping Crompton, sub postmaster (1935). prestwich.org.uk/longfield

05/08/2025

A full turn out of the volunteers at St Mary's today (even I made it) meant we ment great progress clearing a fallen tree.
The remains have been placed as a dead hedge along the boundary of a section of asylum patients buried on the edge of Prestwich Clough.
This section had been compromised by the recent UU works. Attached is a map from 1920 when the section was just a twinkle in someone's eye.

25/07/2025

A Prestwich Man in Rossendale... a.k.a. Irwell Vale Ramblings (Part2)

For Part 1 see here … In 1834, Rev Nathaniel Milne of Prestwich Wood, had been appointed as incumbent of St John’s Church in Smallbridge, near Rochdale. He resigned this position in 183…

24/07/2025

Paley & Austin were also the architects of the extensions to the North and East end of St Mary's in Prestwich between 1872 and 1889. In the churchyard you will also find the imposing monument to John Brooks.