A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



them. 146 For a century, except for a brief interval, 157 

 the church was in the hands of Puritan clergy, and 

 their successors, after the Restoration, do not appear 

 to have been men able to counteract this teaching. 158 

 Hence the power of Nonconformity in the district is 

 readily accounted for. 159 



The growth of the population as Rochdale became 

 a manufacturing centre led to the enlargement of the 

 parish church and the building of new ones. St. 

 Mary's, Wardleworth, was consecrated in 1 744 ; 16 

 St. James's, Wardleworth, in 1821 ; 161 St. Clement's, 

 Spotland, in 1835 ; 161 anc ^ Christ Church, Healey, 

 in i85O. I6S In the last half-century the following 

 have been added : St. Alban's, 1856 ; 16i All Saints', 

 Hamer, i866; 16s St. Peter's, Newbold, 1871 ; 166 

 St. Mary's, Balderstone, 1872;"* St. Edmund's, 

 Falinge, 1873 ; 168 St. Luke's, Deeplish, 1892 ; :69 and 

 the district of the Good Shepherd has been formed, 

 though a permanent building is wanting. The 

 Bishop of Manchester collates to St. Luke's, All Saints', 

 St. Clement's, St. Edmund's, St. Peter's, and the 

 Good Shepherd, and has the presentation of Christ 

 Church alternately with the Crown ; the vicar of 

 Rochdale presents to St. Mary's, St. James's, and 

 St. Alban's ; and trustees to St. Mary's, Balderstone. 



The grammar school, now extinct, was founded by 

 Archbishop Parker. 170 The income, 62 a year, is 

 used to provide exhibitions at the universities. 



Methodism was introduced into the town about 

 1 746, and Wesley, on visiting the place in 1 749, was 

 received with ' shouting, cursing, blaspheming, and 

 gnashing of teeth.' A chapel was built in Toad Lane 

 in 1770, and after being sold in 1793 was used as a 

 theatre. A new chapel was opened in this year in 

 Union Street, and rebuilt in i825. 171 TheWesleyans 

 have now six other churches in the town ; the New 

 Connexion has one, built in 1867, but the story of 

 this section of Methodists goes back to 1819; the 

 United Free Methodists have ten churches, the 



largest, in Baillie Street, originated in 1837 in a seces- 

 sion from Union Street ; the Primitive Methodists- 

 have four, but their earliest chapel, built in 1829, was 

 afterwards a music hall. St. Stephen's Church was 

 opened in 1812 for the Countess of Huntingdon's 

 Connexion, which still retains it. 172 



The Baptists began services in 1772, and in the 

 following year nine persons were publicly baptized in 

 the Roch ; a small chapel was built in 1775, replaced 

 in 1833 by that in West Street. The original Ogden 

 and Hope chapels date from 1785 and 1810 respec- 

 tively, and there are now six churches of this denomi- 

 nation in Rochdale. 173 



The Congregationalists have four churches. Pro- 

 vidence Chapel was acquired in 1814, having been 

 built for a congregation gathered by Joseph Cooke r 

 who had been expelled by the Wesleyans. Milton 

 Church originated in a dispute in 1852. There are 

 two more recent churches. 174 



The Salvation Army has a barracks, and there are 

 several other places of worship belonging to less de- 

 fined bodies. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists- 

 have a church. 



The Society of Friends has had members in Roch- 

 dale almost from its foundation, but the meeting- 

 house in George Street was not built until 1 807-8. 

 John Bright is interred in its burial-ground. 175 



The Unitarian Church in Blackwater Street repre- 

 sents the congregation formed by Robert Bath, the 

 vicar ejected in 1662. A meeting-house was licensed 

 during the temporary Indulgence of 1672, and Oliver 

 Heywood preached there to ' a mighty auditory,' but 

 no chapel seems to have been built until 1716. It 

 was rebuilt in 1856. The congregation became Uni- 

 tarian during the 1 8th century. 176 There was formerly 

 another Unitarian chapel in Clover Street. 177 



The population rapidly became Protestant after the 

 Reformation, 178 and it was not till 1815 that mass 

 was said again in the town, in a hired room. St. John 



156 Hollinworth, speaking of the in- 

 fluence of Vaux at Manchester, says : 

 'This was one reason why many there- 

 abouts were lother to be reclaimed from 

 Popery than about Rochdale ' ; Mancu- 

 nientis, 8 1. 



The presentments at the Bishop of 

 Chester's visitations (in Chest. Dice. Reg.) 

 prove that the Puritan irregularities went 

 on without check. In 1589 there was 

 ' no surplice ' at Rochdale. In the fol- 

 lowing year the vicar was a ' painful ' 

 preacher ; S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxi, 47. The 

 details printed in Lanes, and Ches. Antiq. 

 Soc. xiii, 68, appear to belong to this parish. 

 In 1598 there was again 'no surplice,' and 

 the service was shorter than the Book of 

 Common Prayer by reason of sermons. 

 In 1601 the vicar did not wear the sur- 

 plice, and similar reports were made in 

 1604 and 1605. In the latter year the 

 Communion was celebrated sitting ; the 

 sign of the cross was not used in baptism. 

 Again in 1609 the four curates in the 

 parish did not wear the surplice. 



15 ? Say from 1607 to 1636, while Ken- 

 yon and Tilson were vicars. In 1635 the 

 chancel was paved and the seats made 

 uniform (choirwise) by order of the Bishop 

 of Chester; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1635-6, 

 p. 157. 



168 See the Introd. (pp. x-xii) to Raines's 

 Vicars. 



159 Bishop Gastrell found in 1717 that 

 at Rochdale avowed Presbyterians were 



numerous ; there were also a few in 

 Littleborough, Milnrow, and Saddleworth, 

 while Todmorden was largely Noncon- 

 formist ; Notitia, ii, 1 2 1, &c. 



160 Fishwick, Rochdale, 216. A district 

 chapelry was formed for it in 1 844 ; Land. 

 Gaz. 30 Nov. 



It was formerly known as ' Baum 

 chapel.' The neighbourhood was once 

 haunted by a white rabbit ghost, known 

 as the Baum Rabbit ; Fishwick, op. cit. 



537- 



161 Fishwick, op. cit. 220 ; built under 

 an Act of Parliament obtained in 1815. 

 For district see Land. Gaz. 30 Nov. 1844. 



163 Fishwick, loc. cit. ; built out of the 

 Parliamentary grant. For district see 

 Land. Gaz. 30 Nov. 1844. 



163 Fishwick, op. cit. 221 ; chancel added 

 in 1864. The district was formed in 

 1846 ; Land. Gaz. 18 Sept. 



164 For district see Land. Gam. 9 May 

 1856. 



165 For district assigned see Land. Gaz. I 

 Mar. and 9 Apr. 1867. 



166 For district see Land. Gaz. 5 Nov. 

 1867. 



16 ' For district see Land. Gam. 10 Jan. 

 1865. 



168 For district see Land. Gaz. 5 Nov. 

 1867. 



169 The chancel was built in 1889, and 

 the nave eight years later. A parish was 

 assigned to it in 1895. 



1 ' Fishwick, Rochdale, 270-4. 



W 1 Ibid. 257-8. 



V s Ibid. 268. 



1 7 8 Ibid. 261-4. The original congre- 

 gation was of Particular or Calvinistic 

 Baptists ; A. J. Parry, dough/old Church, 

 199; Rippon's Baft. Reg. iii, 21. The 

 Central hall, now used for entertainments, 

 was until 1890 a Baptist chapel. 



W* Nightingale, Lanes. Nonconf. iii, 

 244-9. 



V* Fishwick, Rochdale, 266-8. Barnes's 

 Dir. of 1825 names the Quaker meeting- 

 house as in Garden Lane, Wardleworth, 

 built in 1817. This was the only one. 



176 Ibid. 251-6 ; Nightingale, op. cit. 

 iii, 2404. Oliver Heywood frequently 

 passed through Rochdale, and records 

 having preached there between 1672 and 

 1679 ; Diaries, ii, 104, no ; iii, in, &c. 

 He gives the place a bad character at that 

 time ; ibid, ii, 261, 285 ; iii, 211. 



Thomas Threlkeld, minister from 1778 

 to 1806, was famous for his power of 

 memory ; see Mancb. Guard. N. and Q. 

 no. 190. 



*77 It was built in 1818 ; Fishwick, op. 

 cit. 256. 



178 Not a single ' Papist ' was reported to 

 Bishop Gastrell about 1717 (see Notitia),, 

 but in that year Sarah Chadwick of Lam- 

 bourn, Berks., widow of Thomas Chad- 

 wick, registered her annuity from lands in 

 Rochdale. She was, however, a Somerset 

 woman ; Estcourt and Payne, Engl. Catb* 

 Nonjurors, 150, &c. 



