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We can thank Elfleda for our historic church

8/10/2002

AS WELL as being a keen artist, Middleton man, Colin Gilbert, is an enthusiastic historian and a member of the Friends of Middleton Parish Church, St Leonard's.

Colin, who lives in Mellalieu Street, is currently researching the origin of St Leonard's and has established that Middleton belonged to the early Diocese of Lichfield, which was formed in 664.

He has also discovered that Christianity was introduced to England's Midlands by Elfleda, a teenage Northumbrian Princess. Working behind the scenes, Elfleda persuaded her father-in-law, Penda (the pagan King of Mercia), to allow her to set up a church at Repton, in 655.

Repton became the cradle of Christianity in Mercia and the origin of St Leonard's, as well as many other churches in Anglo-Saxon England.

While carrying out his historical research, Colin also finds time to bone-up on artist, Fred Jackson, another of Middleton's favourite sons.

Jackson's work is currently the subject of a special exhibition at the refurbished art gallery in Rochdale's Esplanade, now called the Touchstones Centre. Prominent among the exhibits is the large painting entitled Rushbearing in Middleton. Another well-known exhibit, called Sunday Morning, features St Leonard's and shows the congregation leaving after a service.

Fred Jackson was born in Middleton Junction in 1859, but moved to Staithes, North Yorkshire, when he was about 30 years old. However, he travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East before returning to Middleton, where he died in 1918.

Jackson is buried in Boarshaw Cemetery, where his grave is marked by a headstone designed by his lifelong friend and fellow famous-son-of-Middleton, Edgar Wood, the architect.

Colin will be giving a public talk on the life and work of Fred Jackson at the Touchstones Gallery, on 10 October, at 6.30pm. Admission will be free. And his research, material, which regularly features in Memories of Middleton, will eventually appear in book form and be kept in the local history section, at Middleton Library.