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St Agnes Birch-in-Rusholme with St John with St Cyprian Longsight
Church of England Diocese of Manchester
The Revd Henry Norburn was the first Rector of St Agnes from 1885 to 1923. More information will
appear here soon. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge - then use the 'back' button to return to this
album index.
Detail of the chapel screen given by
parishioners in memory of Henry
Nornurn
looking down Norburn Road from
Hamilton Road
The information below is from the Rev Canon
Richard Norburn MBE who, in tracing his family
history, contacted us. These details are published
here with his kind permission.


The first ancestor we have found is Henry Norburn
who farmed in Roxham, near Downham Market.
Roxham never seems to have had more than 40 or
so people and there were just 2 farms, on one of
which Henry was tenant. He lived from 1727 to
1783 and had 13 children of whom at least six died
in their first 6 months and as far as we know only
two had families of their own. One of these was
another Henry (1776 to 1847), who after his much
older brother farmed the Roxham land. He had 5
children, one of whom, Richard (1819 to 1891) is
my great-grandfather. An older son, William (1813
to 1885) was the father of "your" Henry.

William and his wife Rhoda had a farm at Denver,
very close to Roxham. They had ten children of
whom Henry was the third, born in 1842. We
haven't yet found out much about his brothers and
sisters but one died at 11 months in 1849 and  one
sister (Mary) was a school teacher at Ilkeston,
Derbyshire, in 1881 and a brother was a Farm
labourer just the other side of Downham at the
same date.

Henry had meanwhile been to London University,
been ordained and got married by the 1881 Census.
His wife was Jessie Morley from Newark,
Nottinghamshire. So unless she had a second
name, the church dedication was not from her!
There first child, Horace, was born at Newark in
1868. They must have then moved to
Ashton-on-Ribble, where Edith J. was born in
1869, Gertrude in 1871 and Fredrick William in 1873.
They then must have moved to Withington, where
Harry E. was born in 1875, and then into Rusholme
where they had two more children Sybil in 1879
and Ethel M. in 1880.

In the 1881 census their address is "The Oaks",
Birch Lane, Rusholme. In 1891 they lived at
"Crowcroft", Stockport Road, Longsight, and had
Jessie's widowed mother with them. They were in
the same house in 1901 and most of the family
were still there. Horace was a Foreman engineer in
ironworks, Edith, Gertrude and Sybil were all
teaching English in a Ladies School and Ethel was a
kindergarten teacher in the same school.

Henry was in the new area for several years before
the church was built and plainly saw it through its
planning and then gave it the rest of his life!
Corner of Norburn Road with Slade
Lane, St Agnes' in the distance
Norburn Road looking towards Slade
Hall on Slade Lane
view of St Agnes' through ginnel on
Norburn Road
Victoria Terrace - one of a number of
terraces forming Norburn Road
view of St Agnes' through ginnel on
Norburn Road
the Lady Chapel was created in
memory of Henry Norburn. This
picture shows the altar and some
furnishings. In the 1980's the chapel
was changed in to a vestry.
View copies of the 1927 Parish
Magazine with details of Henry
Norburn's funeral and an article
about his contribution to the
parish....VIEW
click here to view the Magazine articles