The History of St Paul's Church, Stalybridge: Factsheet
Richard Tattersall, architect of St Paul's
Richard Tattersall (1803-1844), the architect chosen to design St Paul's, was articled to William Hayley of Manchester, a practice which was responsible for a number of churches in the Manchester area, including St Thomas Church, Ardwick Green (1836) and All Souls, Every Street, Ancoats (1839-40). Tattersall stayed there until setting up his own practice in 1830. He became deaf in 1835.
Tattersall's other ecclesiastical buildings include Old Chapel, Dukinfield :1840 (foundation stone 1839) - an early use of gothic for the design of a nonconformist building - the restoration of the Derby Chapel in Manchester Cathedral (1840) and St Barnabas, Rodney Street, Oldham Road (1842-44). He was responsible for the restoration of Ashton Parish Church in the early 1840s and designed the Unitarian Church in St Peter's Square, Stockport (1842) and he was also responsible for the initial plans prepared for the enlargement of All Saints, Newton Heath, but died before this work was completed.
Pevsner, writing about Victorian church architecture, says that the ideal Gothic was the so-called Second or Middle Pointed - the style of churches of the late 13 and early 14th centuries. Writing of the church buildings of George Gilbert Scott in Cheshire he says that all were Gothic and Second Pointed. But Scott was not the first to use Second Pointed in Cheshire. This was Richard Tattersall at Old Chapel Dukinfield, built 1840/1, even if he felt that Tattersall's church was "unconvinced and undistinguished". Pevsner, N. & E Hubbard: Buildings of England, Cheshire. London: Penguin 1971. p.33
His pupil J S Crowther went on to become the diocesan architect for the Manchester diocese and was responsible for the rebuilding of the tower of Ashton Parish church in 1886-8.
Tattersall was one of the first architects to carry out commercial work in Manchester. He designed the head office of the Manchester and Salford Bank on the corner of Mosley Street and Marble Street, Manchester, Cumberland Infirmary (1830-32) and was involved in the building of the Moral and Industrial Training School, Swinton (1842-45) at the time of his death in 1844 - the building being completed by T.Dickon and W H Brakspear.
see: John J
Parkinson-Bailey: Manchester: an architectural History. (Manchester University
Press, 2000)