Salford residents work to save historic gothic chapel and the city’s forgotten landmarks

Salford residents are fighting to restore a Gothic Chapel and encourage more people to save forgotten, historical landmarks in the city.

Salford residents have come together through the Facebook group “Saving Salford’s historic buildings and landmarks” to save Agecroft Chapel, of Langley Road, Pendlebury.

The Edwardian Chapel was built in 1903 and abandoned in the 1970s. The chapel was closed due to underfunding and was left to fall into a state of disrepair.

The group is led by Glen Kennedy and is working with Salford City Council to save the chapel. Mr Kennedy runs social events at Agecroft Cemetery on Saturday mornings so Salford residents can socialise and share memories about the chapel.

The group hopes to install a florist and café eventually and have an event space for weddings and funerals. To achieve this, the group needs to set up a constitutional group with various official positions, such as chairperson and treasurer.

Mr Kennedy, who has been working to save the chapel since July this year, said: “For Stage One, which will be installation, the building will be about £1.5 million. And to restore the building fully with the extension, which would include the florist and a cafe, you will be talking about two and a half million pounds.”

Alan Henry Whitehead has lived in Salford all his life and urged other Salford residents to get involved in the group. The fifty-four-year-old said: “I’m fed up with seeing old buildings disappearing, not just in Salford, everywhere…Loads of my family is buried here; I want to be buried here.”

The importance of saving historical landmarks was echoed by other members of the group who are also working to save the chapel, such as Hilary Curran. She said: “We can create a blueprint for anyone else to go and start their project.” There is also similar action being taken to save the Mansion at Buile Hill Park.

Jelena Wilson is another member of the group who attends the Saturday morning meetings. She talked about how the loss of old buildings across Salford had impacted her. She said: “My primary school, high school, and college have all disappeared.”

It seems that Salford is not only losing old buildings, but the memories that Salfordians have made there.

Mrs Curran continued: “Give us your memories; we need to give these buildings as much exposure as possible. Come on down and tell us a story of your experiences with old buildings in Salford.”