St Antony of Padua Church was built to serve the residents of the newly built Westinghouse Village in 1904. The church has a corrugated iron structure which it maintains although it was reclad in 1994. It is one of the last remaining 'Tin Tabernacle' Churches in the UK.
The historic Tin Tabernacle Church of St Antony's is a typical example of a number of “tin tabernacles”
Link that were built at the end of the late 1890s/early 1900s. Three such “tin tabernacles” were built in the area to serve the workers on Trafford Park and the families living in the village; as well as the Roman Catholic St Antony of Padua church, a Methodist chapel was built in 1901 and the Anglican St Cuthbert's Church in 1902.
The construction originally forms a timber frame clad with treated corrugated steel. This remained in its original form until the Second World War. In the 1940s, after a bomb dropped on the adjoining warehouse, an additional metal structure was built on the outside of the church to support the frame as it was understood that the blast from the bomb was in danger of making the church lean.
The overall design of the church is similar to many operating in the country of which there are believed to be about 100 surviving examples although there are very few which are still in operation as church buildings. Most of the surviving structures have been converted to other uses over the years as community centres, offices and youth clubs etc.
Much of the Trafford Park Village was demolished by the early 1980s leaving the church with no resident population. Its parish of St Antony of Padua became an industrial chaplaincy. The church closed in 2009 but whilst the church is no longer fully operational, it is used for private services and Mass services linked to the Spirituality Project and is maintained by the Centre for Church and Industry.
Link St Antony’s Centre
See other images of St Antony's Church, The Tin Tabernacle at Trafford Park Village