A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



St. Paul's, Bewsey Road, was built in 1830, and 

 formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1841.' The 

 patronage is in the hands of trustees. St. Anne's, 

 Winwick Road, had an ecclesiastical district assigned 

 to it in 1864, services being held in the schools ; the 

 church followed in 1868. The patronage is vested 

 in Simeon's Trustees.* St. Peter's, Birchall Street, 

 began with a temporary church in 1874 ; the present 

 building was erected in 1890. The rector of War- 

 rington and the vicar of St. Paul's present alter- 

 nately. 3 St. Barnabas, Bank Quay, was built in 1879 

 as a chapel of ease to St. Paul's, the vicar of this 

 church being patron. A district was assigned to it 

 in 1884. 



At Orford there is a licensed chapel of ease under 

 Padgate in Poulton. 



The Reformed Church of England has a place ot 

 worship called Emmanuel. 



The Presbyterian Church of England uses St. John's, 

 in Winwick Street, built in 1807 for a congregation 

 of seceders from St. James's, Latchford. Down to 

 1830 it belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's 

 Connexion, and again from 1836 to 1850. The 

 congregation ceased to exist, but was re-formed in 

 1851 ; becoming Congregational next year it took 

 Salem Chapel, St. John's being disused, and re-opened 

 as a Presbyterian place of worship in 1854. From 

 1830 to 1836 it had been used by the Scottish 

 Secessionists, afterwards the United Presbyterians. 4 



The Wesleyan Methodists have churches in Bold 

 Street, Bewsey Road, and Liverpool Road ; also two 

 mission-rooms. John Wesley preached in Warrington 

 several times between 1757 and 1768 ; a Methodist 

 Chapel was built in Upper Bank Street in 1782. 

 The Primitive Methodists have a church in Legh 

 Street. The United Methodists have a church in 

 Dallam Lane, and the Independent Methodists one 

 in Friar's Green, built in 1 802. There are Free 

 Gospel churches at Bank Quay and Academy Street. 

 In the latter street is also an unsectarian mission- 

 room. 



In 1824 there was a Baptist meeting in Bridge 

 Street, an offshoot from the old Hill Cliff Chapel in 

 Cheshire. A Particular Baptist church exists in 

 Legh Street. Another Baptist church is in Golborne 

 Street ; it was built in 1 8 1 1 for Congregationalists 

 who had seceded from Stepney Chapel, and has had 

 a chequered history. The Baptists had it from 1855 

 for a few years, and regained it in 1876.* 



Wycliffe Congregational Church, Bewsey Street, is 

 the outcome of secessions from Cairo Street Chapel 

 on account of the Unitarian doctrine prevailing there. 

 Stepney Chapel, in King Street, was built in 1779, 

 and a church was formed in 1797; the Rylands 

 family were connected with it. In 1848 it was 



closed. Services were for a time held at the 

 'Nag's Head,' Wycliffe Church being opened in 

 1852. 



The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have a church. 



The Society of Friends has long had members 

 here. Their meeting-house in Buttermarket Street 

 was built in 1720 as a branch of the Penketh meet- 

 ing ; it was rebuilt in 1830.' 



Robert Yates, when ejected from the rectory in 

 1662, continued to minister in the town and district. 

 Ten years later, during a temporary indulgence, he 

 was licensed. The old court-house, on the site of 

 the market hall, was a meeting-place, perhaps by 

 favour of the lord of the manor, a Presbyterian. 

 The first chapel was built in Cairo Street in 1702, 

 for the Nonconformist congregation resulting from 

 Mr. Yates's labours; this was rebuilt in 1745. 

 About the latter date the minister and most of his 

 flock became Unitarian ; and this chapel, which in 

 its time was the centre of the town's intellectual life, 

 remains in the hands of the Unitarians. 8 



Those who remained faithful to the Roman Church 

 at the Reformation had opportunities of worship, in 

 spite of legal proscription, at some of the halls in the 

 neighbourhood. 9 A room in the Feathers Inn, 

 Friarsgate, now pulled down, was used as a chapel 

 about 1750. Dom Thomas Benedict Shuttleworth, 

 a Benedictine stationed at Woolston, removed into 

 Warrington in 1771, and a hall in Dallam Lane, now 

 belonging to the Primitive Methodists, was occupied 

 until 1 778, when a chapel was built off Bewsey Street. 

 In 1823 the present church of St. Alban was built 

 close by, Dr. Molyneux, titular abbot of St. Albans, 

 being then in charge. He procured the gift of the 

 chasuble found in 1835 hidden in the crypt of the 

 parish church, and this is preserved at St. Alban's. 10 

 The orphreys only are ancient, of late fifteenth-century 

 date, the body of the vestment having been renewed 

 in red velvet. In the church is preserved another 

 English chasuble of somewhat later date, but the silk- 

 embroidered orphreys are much repaired. In 1877 

 the Benedictines built the fine church of St. Mary on 

 the eastern side of the town. More recently they 

 have opened St. Benedict's school-chapel (1896). 

 The church of the Sacred Heart, built in 1894, is in 

 the hands of the secular clergy. There is a house of 

 sisters of the Holy Cross and Passion, who teach in 

 the schools." 



BURTONWOOD 



Burtoneswod, 1228; Bourtonewod, 1251; Bur- 

 tonwode, 1297; Bortounwod, 1337. 



This township, of 4,192^ statute acres," was long 

 purely agricultural in character. The population has 





