Rev Rachel Battershell, new vicar of St Andrew's, Dearnley

Rev Rachel Battershell, new vicar of St Andrew's, Dearnley

The new vicar of St Andrew's, Dearnley and Incumbent of Dearnley, Wardle and Smallbridge, is Rev Rachel Battershell.

Rev Rachel Battershell is a former nurse who has spent the last three years working as a team vicar in the parish of the Good Shepherd, Ashton-under-Lyne.

She was responsible for two churches and the town-centre chaplaincy in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Rev Battershell spent her early childhood in Malaysia before growing up in Oxfordshire where she lived until starting her nurse training on the outskirts of London.

She later worked in Hertfordshire, Devon and Wiltshire before moving to the north of England in 2005.

Before ordination, she worked as a nurse in hospital wards, nursing homes, factories and on building sites, spending the last ten years of her nursing career in Occupational Health.

One of her last jobs in nursing was at the University of Salford where she looked after staff and worked with health-care students.

Rachel said: "I was involved from an early age with Church life and by the time I was 14 I was a crucifer and a server.

"A long journey of faith and discovery culminated in my calling to full-time ministry in 2003."

She trained to be a Lay Reader in the diocese of Bristol and took up a post in that capacity at St Barnabas, Shore, Littleborough in January, 2006.

From June, 2011 to June, 2014 she was a curate in two small parishes in Oldham, after which she moved to Ashton-under-Lyne.

Rev Rachel Battershell's licensing service will be at St Andrew's, Dearnley on Sunday, 7 May at 3.00pm, which will be attended by Church and Civic dignitaries.