be equal to £255 of our present money. It must be clear this sum would not be adequate to the re-building of the entire edifice; accordingly, the tradition of the only portion then re-built having been betwixt the pulpit and the steeple, is entitled to credit. Sir Ralph Langley died subsequent to 1491.

The north wall of the old church was manifestly erected at three distinct periods of time, as was clearly traceable on examining its exterior face, and the portion from the tower to the fourth buttress was the most ancient. From the fourth buttress to the fifth, and from the fifth to the sixth, were successive enlargements. There is reason to believe the tower was re-built at a later date than the time of Sir Ralph Langley, and the whole of the building seems to have been repaired in the reign of James the First, 1603-1625. The gallery of the church was erected in 1703, by Mr. Brierley, of Oldham.

According to Bacon's edition of "The Liber Regis" (or King's Book of the valuation of livings), Oldham church is dedicated to St. Mary; but this statement seems founded on the fact of the mother church of Prestwich being dedicated to the same saint. The popular opinion is, that the dedication was to St. Paul, and, in the pursuance of this belief, the church was named St. Paul's in the inscription plate affixed to the foundation stone of the present structure.

In 1454, Sir Ralph Langley, Rector of Prestwich, let, by indenture, all the tithes, oblations, and emoluments (except the glebe land and the free rents) belonging to the chapel of Oldham, to Sir Henry Penulbury, priest of the chantry of Middleton, for the term of three years, for the annual rent of forty-thrée marks, or £28 13s. 4d., or equal to £258 of the present currency. At a court held at Manchester by the Parliamentary Commissioners of church lands, July 18,

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