History

In the 1870s, Christ Church in Heaton Norris had “a most zealous church worker and organist” named William Hope, who sadly died whilst on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. To remember him, Hope Memorial School was built in 1885 on Huntsman's Brow (where the Pyramid now stands). Sunday evening services began to be held there from November 1885, and 10 years later, it was used to hold Sunday morning services as well.

In 1897, an application was made to the Ecclesiastical Church Commissioners for “a separate district for spiritual purposes": that is, the permission to form a new parish, and build a new church. The application ends with “the necessity of a new district & church is shown by the rapidly increasing population in the Heaton Mersey District."

In 1891 Reverend Richard Pratt was licensed as the curate at Christ Church, Heaton Norris. A few years later, he was involved in forming the new parish of Norris Bank, along with the Rectors of Christ Church and Heaton Mersey. This ‘Conventional District’ was formed by taking a portion of Christ Church, Heaton Norris and St John Baptist, Heaton Mersey. The Parish of Norris Bank was formalised on 3rd February 1899. Rev’d Pratt was appointed as the ‘first Incumbent of the New Living’. St Martin’s church building was commissioned in 1901 by the then Bishop of Manchester. 

St Martin's enjoyed playing an active presence in the life of the Parish, but due to declining numbers was almost closed in 2018. However, in September 2018 the PCC agreed to a church revitalisation.  A group of adults and children were sent by Holy Trinity Platt Manchester to join the existing congregation. Since then, it has been a thriving part of the community once again. 

'Rebuilding the Roof, Building the Future'

A full roof survey in 2019 and a further visual inspection in 2021 identified issues across the different roof areas, which would cause significant and costly building defects. This led to the ‘Rebuilding the Roof, Building the Future’ project consisting of essential repairs to the church roof and structure. 

This project will benefit all those who come into the church, providing an improved and safer physical environment and more importantly paving the way for internal development of the building which will enable a wider range of church-led activities and more opportunities for use by other community groups. 

We applied to Allchurches Trust and are pleased to announce that they gave us £3,600 towards the cost of the building work to repair the roof.