This Roby United Reformed Church is the latest in a line of Roby Churches in Manchester.

The first was built in Cannon Street and in 1795 the Reverend Will Roby was appointed to it. In 1807 the first church was replaced by a new one in Grosvenor Street. Congregationalists from Manchester and Salford decided in 1904 that this church was unsuitable for the needs of their congregation and this led to the building of the Roby Congregational Church on Dickenson Road in 1911.

The site, where the Social Security offices are now, on the corner of Clarence Street and Dickenson Rd was the original site of Roby Congregational Church. That church became a United Reform Church in the 1970's. This was the first church to feature on a "live" broadcast of Songs of Praise.

The church was a sprawling gothic building which had an active but dwindling congregation and also a scout troop. There was a large area behind the church which resembled a bomb site and that's where the cubs and scouts used to play on warm evenings.

Finally finances forced the church to sell the land and build this smaller church on the corner of Birch Hall Lane and Dickenson Rd.

This image is shown with the permission of Graham Todd