St. Ann's Tower...

A return to St. Ann's Church today for today's picture for a look at the recent restoration and the peculiar piebald appearance of the building. The church was originally built out of a local red sandstone from a quarry in Collyhurst, at the time in the countryside, but now an inner suburb of the city just north of the city centre. This sandstone was found to be too soft and deteriorated quickly. Replacement sandstones were found from various places across the north west of Endland, stronger than the original but all different shades of red and cream. Hence the piebald nature of the church facade. In the most recent restoration they kept to this piebald character of the church and replaced old stones with new ones from different quarries.

The church was built in 1712. Although the church has a tower now it originally had a cupola on top of it. It was taken down in 1777. It is the third oldest building in the city centre after Chetham's School and Manchester Cathedral and is a Grade 1 listed building. It was once thought to be a Christopher Wren church but that just seem to be a fanciful notion.