Follow the brown signs

A Gothic gem set in a diamond

Tucked away in a quiet corner of Rochdale the extraordinary church of St Edmund’s may look like many other Victorian parish churches. On closer inspection it reveals a fascinating blend of gothic revival architecture and Masonic symbolism.

Described by Pevsner as “Rochdale’s Temple to Freemasonry”, this fascinating building was created for wealthy Victorian industrialist and Freemason Albert Hudson Royds in 1870-3 by the Architects James Medland and Henry Taylor.

The symbolism goes beyond architecture to the very position of the church in the Rochdale landscape. Sitting in a diamond shaped churchyard at the highest point in the town it is making an overt reference to the Temple which dominated Jerusalem – casting Rochdale as the New Jerusalem.

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