St. John’s Church

Brookledge Lane, Adlington, Cheshire

“The Tin Tabernacle”

details of services in Weekly Bulletin

This daughter church of St. Peter’s Prestbury was built in 1892 on the site of a former cottage and croft, part of the Adlington Hall estate. Made from a flat pack costing £150 (probably from Francis Norton & Co., Liverpool), it is constructed of corrugated iron, lined with pitch pine. The vestry came with the construction kit as an optional extra and has since been extended.

When the church was built it had a small spire which housed a single bell. At a later date the spire was dismantled and the bell was moved to its current turret above the porch. The cross above the entrance is a replacement made and donated by the local firm Brocklehurst’s.

The disabled ramp at the church entrance was installed in 2005.

In the 1930s, chairs were replaced with pews made by George Allen Wainwright. The church was originally lit by suspended oil lamps, later replaced by electric lights. At first the building was heated by a cast iron coal stove - the chimney flue still exists at the outside west wall. The church is now heated by overhead electric heaters. The first electronic organ, which cost £500, was installed in 1977, replacing an earlier harmonium. The present organ was installed in 2001.

Interior, about 1900

Interior, 2008

The font, believed to be original, seems to have been ordered from a catalogue of accessories available with the church. Above the altar there is a mosaic “Agnus Dei” created by Lady Mather of Whirley Hall. In the sanctuary is a Millennium Wall Hanging in the shape of a stained glass window depicting life in Adlington at the beginning of 2000AD.

Inside the church there is war memorial to men from Adlington who lost their lives in the two World Wars.

The paddock is planted with old varieties of apples, damsons and a Millenium Yew which was planted on March 5th, 2000.