A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



which had been at work since 1 731.' A recent paper 

 called the y^<j'trr//ji!T was issued from 1S62 to 1889. 

 The tf'arrington Guardian (now issued twice a week) 

 was established in 1853 ; the Examiner, founded in 

 1875, and the Observer m i SS8,' are weekly papers. 

 The Review is also published week!)-. 



The river was formerly the great means of com- 

 munication with Liverpool,' 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 ever}- hour of the 

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

 first stage-coach'' 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.' ° 



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.' 



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 modem. 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 modem ribbed vault springing from old 

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

 east, and one each on the north and south. It is 

 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 modem. 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 i860, and is carried 

 on four moulded arches of fourteenth-century style. 

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

 with crocketed gabled hood-moulds, and above them 

 a pierced and panelled parapet with angle pinnacles, 

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



^ A full account of this Press was con- 

 tributed by Dr. James Kcndrick to the 

 f-f'jrr. Guardian in 1880-1. The first 

 known product was a broadside issued 

 by John Eyres, who was living in the 

 town as a printer in 1731, and whose son 

 William made the Press famous from 1 760 

 onwards. One of William Eyres' 5 books 

 was Watson's Mt'r^jirs of the Earls of 

 fVarrcr., 1782. An account of some 

 booksellers of Warrington in the middle 

 of the seventeenth century maybe read in 

 Trans. Hist. Soc. (New Ser.), i, 67 ; a 

 list of books in stock in 1647 is given, 

 pp. :--iii. 



* A number of other newspapers and 

 magazines have been issued from time 

 to time, but have not continued. The 

 Standard zai Times, both begun in 1859 

 were united and continued until 1862. 

 The EitningPostliitei from 1877 to 1880. 

 The Ca:a!:gue of the Warrington Library 

 give? particulars of these and others. 



' 'In 1753 the ship Sac/iarissa, which 

 . . . had a cargo of sugar on board, hav- 

 ing left Liverpool for Bank Quay eight 

 days before, was wrecked on the Long 

 Duck Stakes near Sankey . . . ; and the 

 ordinary protest, such as is now made on 

 the loss of a sea-going vessel, had to be 

 made on the Sacharissa ' ; Beamont, Hale 

 and Orford, 229. 



* The Irwell and Mersey ' were made 

 navigable under powers of the Act of Par- 

 liament obtained in 1720, when it was 

 undertaken successfully by several adven- 

 turers ' ; Pennant, Downing to Alston 

 Mo^.r, 16. 



" The ' Warrington coach ' is spoken of 

 by Matthew Henry in 1704; quoted by 

 Beamont, Annals of IVarr. from i 587, p. 

 xi. On 9 June, 1757, 'it was announced 

 that the Warrington flying stage-coach 

 would set out every Monday and Thurs- 

 day morning from the Bull Inn in Wood 

 Street, London, and the ' Red Lion ' in 



308 



Warrington, during the summer season, 

 and arrive at the above inns every Wed- 

 nesday and Saturday evening. Each pas- 

 senger was to pay two guineas and to be 

 allowed fourteen pounds of baggage * ; 

 Hale and Orfordy 231. On the same page 

 will be found the advertisement of 1760 

 of the Manchester and Liverpool coach, 

 which passed through Warrington and 

 Prescot. 



*^ Baines, Lanes. Direc. ii, 587, 590. 



"^ Ibid, ii, 587. The same work is the 

 authority for the statement that as late ai 

 1760 *it was usual to insert a clause in 

 indentures of apprenticeship at Warring- 

 ton by which the masters stipulated not 

 to oblige their apprentices to eat salmon 

 more than twice a week' ; this appears 

 to be imaginary. 



* The details are: Warrington — Arable, 

 4,568; grass, 1,121; wood, Ac, 25; 

 and Burtonwood, 2,9''7, 42 t, 139, re- 

 spectively. 



