g was bought by certain gentlemen
connected with the Church of England. A young man, named William
Dent Thompson, strong in constitution, greatly enamoured of
Reformation principles, keenly polemical, and brought up under the
aegis of the Rev. Geo. Alker, was appointed superintendent of the
place. He stayed awhile, then went away, and was succeeded by the
Rev. Geo. Donaldson, who in turn left for Blackburn, and was
followed by the Rev. Geo. Beardsell, the present incumbent of All
Saints' in this town. Mr. Beardsell did an excellent business in the
district--worked it up well and most praiseworthily; but he, in
time, left.

For seven months after this, there was no regular minister at the
place; still it didn't go down; several energetic, zealous laymen
looked after it and the schools established in connection with it,
and, considering their calibre, they did a good work. But they
couldn't keep up a full and continuous fire; a properly stationed
minister was needed; and Mr. Thompson, who had in the meantime
entered holy orders, was summoned from Blackenall, in Staffordshire,
to take charge of the church and district. In 1863 he came; under
his ministrations the congregation soon augmented; and in a short
time a movement was started for a new church; the old building being
a ricketty, inconvenient, rudely-dismal place, quite insufficient
for the requirements of the locality. The principal friends of the
new movement were R. Newsham, the late J. Bairstow, J. Horrocks, and
T. Miller, Esqrs., and what they subscribed constituted a
substantial nucleus guaranteeing the commencement of operations. In
1866, the old edifice was pulled down to make way for a new church,
and during the work of re-construction divine service was performed
in Vauxhall-road schools, which were, sometime after Mr. Thompson's
appointment, transferred by the Rev. Canon Parr from the Parish
Church's to St. Saviour's district. R. Newsham, Esq., laid the
corner-stone of St. Saviour's Church on the 26th of November, 1866;
the building was consecrated by the Bishop of Manchester, on the
29th of October, 1868; on the 9th of December in that year, the Rev.
W. D. Thompson was licensed to its incumbency; and on the 16th of
April, 1869, the district was "legally assigned" by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

St. Saviour's--designed by Mr. Hibbert, architect, of this town--is
one of the handsomest and best finished churches we have seen. It
almost seems too go