A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



which had been at work since 1731.' A recent paper 

 called the Advertiser was issued from 1862 to 1889. 

 The Harrington Guardian (now issued twice a week) 

 was established in 1853 ; the Examiner, founded in 

 1875, and the Observer in 1888,* are weekly papers. 

 The Review is also published weekly. 



The river was formerly the great means of com- 

 munication with Liverpool, 3 and was improved by the 

 Mersey and Irwell Navigation ; * 'the communication 

 between Manchester and Liverpool' by its means 

 was, in 1825, described as 'incessant ; the brickdust- 

 coloured sails of the barges are seen every hour of the 

 day on their passage, flickering in the wind.' The 

 first stage-coach 5 in the county issued from this town, 

 according to the same authority, and ' between sixty 

 and seventy coaches on an average passed through 

 Warrington every day, and the principal streets were 

 kept by them in a state of perpetual animation.' 6 



The fishery was formerly a valuable one. In 1825 

 it belonged to John Arthur Borron and Edward 

 Pemberton, but by that time it had ceased to be of 

 much importance. 7 



The agricultural land in the parish is now occupied 

 as follows : Arable land, 7,635 acres ; permanent 

 grass, 1,546 ; woods and plantations, 164." 



The church of St. Elphin stood till 

 CHURCH after the middle of the last century at 

 the extreme east end of the town of 

 Warrington, but has since become surrounded by 

 houses. The churchyard is of irregular shape, the 

 longest dimension being from north to south. The 

 fabric of the church has in the last two centuries 

 undergone many changes and reconstructions, and 

 retains nothing of mediaeval date except the chancel. 

 The site is undoubtedly one of great antiquity, but 

 the oldest work that has been found belongs to the 

 latter part of the twelfth century ; a series of small 

 capitals of this date, found during the rebuilding of 

 the nave, being preserved in Warrington Museum. 



The present building consists of chancel with south 

 vestry, central tower and transepts, and nave with 

 north and south aisles. 



The chancel of three bays is recorded to have been 

 built in 1354, and its details agree well with the 

 date. In common with the rest of the church it is 

 entirely faced with red sandstone ashlar. It has an 

 east window of five trefoiled lights with flowing 

 tracery, and on each of the north and south sides 

 three three-light tracery windows of similar style, 



those in the western bay being modern. The original 

 windows in this bay were destroyed by a fall of part 

 of the tower some fifty years since. Beneath the 

 eastern bay is a contemporary crypt, vaulted in two 

 bays with a modern ribbed vault springing from old 

 corbels, and lighted by two two-light windows on the 



approached by stairs on north and south, but only 

 the stair on the north is ancient. This is contained in a 

 broad buttress, and leads down from the chancel to 

 the crypt, and formerly led upwards from the 

 chancel to the roof, though this part of it is 

 now broken away. The buttress in which it is 

 contained dies into the wall before reaching the 

 top, the upper part being modern. The door from 

 the chancel to the stair is modern, but replaces an 

 original doorway which stood a little farther to the 

 west, and after having been hidden by panelling for a 

 long time was rediscovered in 1824. Before this 

 date the crypt had been inaccessible, probably for some 

 centuries, as it had never had an entrance from the 

 churchyard, and had also at some time been filled in 

 with earth, and the crown of its vault destroyed, in 

 order to lower the level of the floor at the east end of 

 the chancel. The window in the buttress which 

 lights the stair is modern, and the west jamb of an 

 older window is to be seen close to it. The doorway 

 at the foot of the stair, opening to the crypt, is also 

 modern, but occupies the site of the original entrance. 

 It seems unlikely that the crypt has ever contained 

 an altar, and as the sills of its two east windows 

 were originally carried down to the floor level, it may 

 have been a charnel, and it is to be noted that many 

 bones were found in it when it was cleared out. But 

 against this must be set the fact that it is unusually 

 well lighted for such a purpose, and it is possible that 

 it was intended for a vestry. Under the second 

 window on the south side of the chancel is an original 

 doorway, once external, but now opening into a 

 vestry built about 1 740 ; it is designed for a door 

 opening inwards, but the present door opens towards 

 the vestry, to the detriment of the mouldings of the 

 outer arch. 



The central tower dates from 1860, and is carried 

 on four moulded arches of fourteenth-century style. 

 There are two two-light belfry windows in each face, 

 crocketed gabled hood-moulds, and above them 



pierced and panelled parapet 



ngl< 



inacles. 



and a tall stone spire with three tiers of spire-lights, th 



