2014 AGM will be held at 10.30am on Friday 21 November 2014, at Old Chapel (Unitarian) Dukinfield Schoolrooms, Crescent Road, Dukinfield, SK16 4EN, to be followed by a Committee Meeting. ALL WELCOME, whether members or not.

AGM Monday 25 November 2013 at Dukinfield Old Chapel Schoolrooms, SK16 4EN.

Click here to download Advance Notice of AGM

Update 8 September 2013

Dear all,

I'm sorry that I haven't been in touch since the Open Meeting held on 8 April 2013, when Consultants gave a presentation about their archaeological and architectural studies of the building, and the emergency stabilisation works already undertaken.

Subsequently, a written report was received in DVD form, which is being studied in detail by English Heritage, who will be main funders of any further works.

THE EXCITING NEWS IS THAT THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOUND SOME 'POST-HOLES' IN THE NAVE OF THE CHAPEL, WHICH COULD BE EVIDENCE OF AN EARLER BUILDING THAN THE TUDOR RUIN WE SEE TODAY.

AND.....THE DISTURBED GROUND CREATED BY THE POST HOLES MAY CONTAIN CLUES AS TO EVEN EARLIER HUMAN ACTIVITY.

Further archaeological work is needed but the Friends have an opportunity to tell you what we already know, or suspect, on site, at the annual Heritage Open Days event on : Sunday 15 September 2013.

Remember, the building is nomally inaccessible to the public so this is one of the very few opportunities to see it close to. Because the building is now safer than it was last year I am hoping we will be able to enter it (the areas dug by the archaeologists have been back-filled).

The arrangements are:

1pm Meet at Portland Basin Heritage Centre, Portland St. South, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL7 0QA
Walk 1.5 km along Peak Forest Canal to Globe Square
1.30pm Arrive Old Hall Chapel
2.30pm Depart Old Hall Chapel
Option of a walk of 1km further along Peak Forest Canal to Newton Hall, a cruck-framed manor house dating from about 1380
3.00pm Arrive Newton Hall
4.00pm Newton Hall closes

If you wish to visit Dukinfield Old Hall Chapel on 15 September please contact me by e-mail, ansaphone 0161-330 8730, or text phone 07532 209 249, because numbers are limited, although there are plenty of spaces available at the moment. I can also advise on public transport if needed.

If you cannot come on 15th September but would like more detail about the Consultants' findings and recommendations, please let me know later in the month and I'll do what I can to help.

We have always stressed the importance of the building in the development of three religious movements during the Civil War period, the Congregationalists, the Quakers and the Unitarians, but also because it is the last remaining link with the home of the Duckenfield family, Lords of the Manor.

Those of you equally as interested in the history of the family will want to hear Gay Jeanne Oliver give a talk entitled "Barons and Bastards - the Story of the Dukinfield Family's involvement in the Slave Trade and their Slave Plantations in Jamaica and North Carolina." She says that her interest was sparked a few years ago by her accidental discovery of Dukinfield family documents in the Cooper Family Collection at The London Metropolitan Archives, including the Will of the grandson of Colonel Robert Dukinfield, another Robert Dukinfield, who died in Jamaica in 1755, which contained these two paragraphs:

His Will dated 1755

Extracts:

On Jane Engusson, a free negro woman, he settled 101 acres and 14 slaves, 2 lots of land in East Kingston (Duke Street) and the use of his town house in East Kingston until his brother Samuel should arrive from England, and all his furniture and plate, with £300 to have a house built on one of the fore mentioned lots. Also one of his chaises.

To each of his two sons, William and Estcourt Dukinfield, by Jane engusson, 400 acres, 4 slaves and a building lot in Kingston (opposite to Thomas Wheeler, Duke Street) To their sister Elizabeth 417 acres, 7 slaves and a building lot in Kingston adjacent to her brother. Also £500 to William, £500 to Estcourt and £1,000 as a dowry for Elizabeth provided she marry a white man.

Gay invites you to come along and find out more, and see some of the rare documents she found along the way.

The arrangements are

DATE: Wednesday 11 September 2013
TIME: 7pm for 7.30pm
PLACE: Old Chapel Schoolrooms, Crescent Road, Dukinfield, SK16 4EN

(This meeting is also the AGM of the Family History Society of Cheshire (Tameside Group) but this is not expected to take long.). THERE IS A £2 CHARGE FOR NON-MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.

Roy Parkes
Secretary
Friends of Dukinfield Old Hall Chapel