Northern Astronomers the Rev J Chadwick Bates

 The Rev J Chadwick Bates (1826-1901) was born in Oldham on June 16^th 1826. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School which was founded back n 1515 and is still going strong today. Later he went to Queen’s College Oxford. 

He was ordained by the Bishop of Manchester in 1850. Between 1851- 1856 he would  move over to Yorkshire where he would have a curacy in Hull. He would then move back to what was then Lancashire to the village of Castleton where he would spend the rest of his days. Castleton is near  to Rochdale. 

Originally in charge of a small mission, he helped to fund for a new church, St Martin’s which was built in 1862. That church is still in Castleton today and is a conspicuous land mark in the village. 

Not surprisingly like many men of the church during the 19^th century he was interested in science, these interest included geology, meteorology and astronomy. 

In 1865 he had an observatory built, I believe that he built the dome himself which says something about the man. I cannot be certain if he built the rest of the observatory or whether someone else built it. The construction of the observatory was timed to coincide with the purchasing of instruments to be housed in it. 

In that same year 1865 he purchased from Thomas Cooke & Sons of York a blank glass disk. I assume that he fashioned this himself into a lens suggesting some pretty technical skills  I would assume it would have been of either a 3 or 4 inches in size. This was a fairly standard size for an amateur astronomer of the time. He also purchased an equatorial stand also from Cooke & Sons and also in 1865. The observatory had a transit room but I don’t know which instrument was located there. 

To date I have not come across any observations made by the Rev Chadwick Bates, this is not surprising as so many records from amateur astronomers just don’t survive today.

 He died on the 14^th December 1901 at St Martin's vicarage