Edgar Wood was born on May 17, 1860, in Middleton where his father was a mill owner.  Edgar was educated at the local Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. After school he started the process of becoming an architect articled to Mills and Murgatroyd, the Manchester architectural firm that was responsible for a number of prominent building in Manchester including London Road Station and the redesigned Royal Exchange.  Edgar passed the qualifying examinations of the RIBA and became an Associate in 1885. He set up his own office in Middleton

John H. G. Archer says of Wood that, "In Wood's architecture the influences of both the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau are clearly apparent, the former by his revival of the vernacular traditions of Lancashire and West Riding buildings, and the latter by his use of elongated forms and interwoven motifs." 

Most of Wood's buidings in Manchester are private houses.  Without question his masterpiece is to be found in Victoria Park, see below.

It was the first purpose-built church in Britain for Christian Scientists and the second in Europe. This left Wood relatively free from precedent. The requirements were simple: a main space was needed for worship and a subsidiary one as a reading room for the study of the scriptures and the works of Mary Baker Eddy.