In October last year (2022) my heart must have skipped a beat when I finally held in my hands the original register of Risley Chapel and Croft Unitarian Chapel. (I will be eternally grateful to David Shallcross at Chowbent Chapel for all of his help.)

I had been told repeatedly that it was lost, but I just couldn’t accept that. I already knew most of what was written inside it, as the person to last handle it was John Bulmer in 1979, who had transcribed most of the listings. It is something different though, to see the handwriting of all these people that I have researched for so long.

There are an extra 26 baptisms, 18 burials and 1 marriage to add to the previous transcription, which I am in the process of doing. I have also digitally scanned every page with any writing on, to make a permanent record for the future.

The register has now been returned to safekeeping and I thought I would share with you all a couple of details from the book.

The register was bought for Risley Chapel and has entries from 1787 onwards. When the Unitarians were ejected in 1838, they took the register with them, and it was in use until the last entry in 1958.

The cover is missing and what remains is in very poor shape. Not all of the events over time have been recorded in the register, mainly I think because of the many different ministers – there are nearly 70.

Some of the handwriting is beautiful, for example the titles for different parts of the book.

Only one marriage is recorded, though I know there were many more, from marriage certificates and newspaper entries. The chapel was registered for weddings in 1846. The one marriage entry is from 1947.
 
One of the earliest baptisms is from February 1787 and was Betty, the daughter of John and Betty Monks.

​There are also some extra miscellaneous notes inside, such as this one written by Thomas Blackburne in 1810.

The Cotton Factory Times was a weekly British newspaper, aimed at cotton mill workers in Lancashire and Cheshire. It ran from 1885 – 1937.

Here are a selection of articles featuring local places and people.

Friday 22nd June 1894

Outing – On Saturday afternoon the foremen of Messrs. T Barnes and Co., Farnworth Cotton Mills, had their annual picnic to Croft, near Warrington. In a first-class turnout a start was made from Gladstone Road at 115, and on reaching Chat Moss Hotel a stop was made for one hour while the party had a game at bowls and refreshments.

They then commenced the journey to Croft, which was reached about 430. A first-class knife and fork tea was partaken of at the Horse Shoe Inn. After tea a few had a ramble in the country, and the others enjoyed themselves on the green with bowls, etc. The return journey was commenced at 845, and the party arrived home about 1145 well pleased with their out.

Friday 17th June 1892

FATAL ACCIDENT TO AN OVERLOOKER – On Friday evening James Vanse, aged 43, overlooker, at the Daisy Bank Mill, Culcheth, near Leigh, went up a ladder to get something out of the spout, when the ladder slipped and he fell to the ground and sustained injuries to his head, from which he died the same night.

The inquest was held on Monday afternoon, when a verdict of accidental death was returned.

Friday 13th April 1906
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Accident – Early on Saturday morning a tape weaver named Miss Ellen Collier, of Warrington Road, Glazebury, and employed at Messrs. Gill and Hartley’s, Glazebury Mill, was following her employment when she got her right arm entangled, with the result that it was broken just above the wrist.

Friday 18th September 1891

SHOCKING SUICIDE OF A WEAVER – The operatives employed at the Glazebury Weaving Shed of Messrs. Gill and Hartley, near Leigh, were thrown into a state of consternation on Tuesday evening by the intelligence that a weaver, employed at the mill, named Richard Massey, had shot himself at his residence, Fowley Common, where he resided with a man named Taylor.

Taylor went home about 11 o’clock on Tuesday night, and went to bed without getting a light. After being in bed some time, he called out to Massey, but, receiving no answer, he struck a light, and found his fellow lodger stretched on the floor dead, with a bullet through his head.

Deceased had apparently tied a piece of string to the trigger of a gun, and so shot himself. Massey, who was nearly fifty years of age, had lately been very depressed, and had frequently threatened to put an end to his life.

Friday 26th March 1897

ACCIDENT TO A SCAVENGER – An alarming accident happened at No. 3 spinning room of the No. 1 mill of the Mather Lane Spinning Co., on Tuesday morning, about half-past ten, to a scavenger residing at Warrington Road, Glazebury, named William Johnson. He was new to his work, and he went under the carriage as the wheel was going up, with the result that his hips were crushed and the sinews ruptured.
He was immediately conveyed to Dr. King’s, who attended to his injuries, and he is progressing as favourably as can be expected.

Friday 23rd February 1906
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Marriage – On Saturday afternoon, at the Newchurch Parish Church, in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends, the marriage was celebrated of Miss Maggie Yates and Mr. Thomas Gould, both mill operatives, and residing at Culcheth.

The bride is employed as a weaver and the bridegroom as a twister at the Daisy Bank Manufacturing Co.’s mill, Culcheth. A good number of their workmates were present at the dinner, which was served at the house of the bride, after which a pleasant evening was spent.
The happy couple have been the recipients of numerous and useful presents.

BY W. BOYD DAWKINS, D.Sc., F.R.S.,
HON. PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
From - Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Volume 29, 1911

I am indebted to Mr. T. R. Morrow for the following account of a find of sufficient importance to be laid before the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society as a fragment of the prehistory of the Manchester district.

​The circumstances were that in digging for the foundation of a power-house for the Partington Steel and Iron Company, at Irlam, it was found necessary to pass through the alluvial deposits of the Mersey down into the solid rock. These presented the following section (fig. I).

The strata are of the usual alluvial type of the lower Mersey-the finer sediments deposited by the river being the silts, marls, and sands, based on the coarser gravel that rests on the bunter sandstones below.
In this section, at a point 32ft. from the surface and 12ft. above sea-level, a flat discoidal waterworn implement apparently of coal-measure sandstone was discovered (fig. 2), perforated in the centre, the perforation narrowing towards the inside, as is generally the case with holes in stone, made by the rotation of a stick with sand, starting from the outsides and meeting in the middle.
It is 5 1/16 in. long, 4.4in. broad, and 1.5in. thick.

It belongs to the group of perforated stones that were used in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages for net-sinkers or weights for nets or for the heads of hammers. From its large size it probably belongs to the former class, and from the character of the perforation, I feel inclined to refer it to the Neolithic Age.
The interest of this discovery consists in the fact that it proves the presence of man in the district during the time of the accumulation of the lower gravel in the stream of the Irwell, that took place under different physical conditions to those now met with, and at a time when the current was swifter than that to which the upper finer sediments covering the gravel are due.
The find stands, in relation to the surface, just as the human remains found in the excavation for the Preston docks, and the implements met with in the submarine forests of Cardiff, and the coasts of Somerset, near Minehead and Porlock, are related to the surface of the existing alluvia in each district-with this sole difference that, in the latter cases, the forests have sunk beneath the sea since they were the hunting grounds of man.
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It is probable that Lancashire also stood at a higher lever at the time of the deposit of the ground at Irlam than it does now, and that the coarser materials of which it is composed were carried down from the upper reaches by the greater swiftness of the Mersey due to the greater fall. From all these considerations, I conclude that the find at Irlam belongs to the earliest phase of the occupation of Lancashire by Neolithic man.

Among the discoveries which were made was a pew out of the ancient Church, which the Rector has had fixed in the Church porch. It had, presumably, been removed from the gallery of the old Church before it was destroyed by fire and been used as a garden seat.

A number of old name plates from the pews were also found in a cupboard at the Rectory. The old Church contained a number of square box-like sittings or pews, dating from 1717 onwards, and the name plates indicate various old families who occupied them. These have been mounted and placed on an oak panel in the clergy vestry.

Other relies of past centuries found at the Rectory were the old keys, used when the Rev. Thomas Wilson, who became Bishop of Sodor and Man, was in charge. These, too, have been mounted on brass discs and dated 1663.
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A set of six old prints, going back to 1721, were also discovered, and these have been suitably framed in oak by Mr. Plant and are interesting to look upon in the clergy vestry.

There is a colour in the prints which cannot be matched to-day.
​They represent: The Birth of Christ; the Wise Men; the Sermon on the Mount; Mary and Martha; Martyrdom of Stephen; Elijah carried up to Heaven.
There is also a rare photo-print of the Archbishop of York, Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, D.D ., who has now been translated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and is now the Primate of all England.

Newchurch has one of the most interesting histories, which architecture has preserved, and possesses Communion plate of great value.

The silver Communion cup of peculiar design was given by Dr. Richard Sherlock, Rector of Winwick, to his nephew, Bishop Wilson.
The vessel stands six and a half inches high and measures four and a half inches across the top, as well as across the base. It is of the wineglass shape, and bears traces of gilding on the outside. The cup has been hammered out by a local smith from a pre-Reformation chalice.

Examination by a magnifying glass reveals distinct signs of a cross, which frequently occurs on one side of the bowl of such chalices. The cup is somewhat roughly fashioned and bears no hallmark. It holds the most honoured place in the list of local church plate, and is one of the very few known examples of pre-Reformation chalices in the world.

It is a connecting link, both in material and in features of design, between the typical pre-Reformation chalice and the post-Reformation Communion cup.
 
 Besides the ancient Communion cup, the paten in use is of a very quaint type, and is slightly bent and out of shape. The handsome silver flagon is a magnificent specimen of church plate, bearing the date of 1763, though probably much older. It was bequeathed to the Church by Edward Leech in his will dated 13th November, 1760, and proved at Chester on February 23rd, three years later.

The two ancient collecting boxes, dated 1663, were used in the Parish Church by the wardens. In those days the boxes were only handed to the squire, the doctor and one or two other leading members of the parish and congregation, and gold coins were nearly always contributed.

Three pieces of gold in those days were more than sufficient to meet the Church expenses for a month, money going much further in spending value than it does to-day. Collections in Church were monthly, or as required.
 The wardens knew how much they wanted, and before the offerings were presented at the Holy Table, they would tilt the boxes and look at the coins to ascertain if there was sufficient. If the amount was not enough for their purposes they would proceed to collect from other worshippers in Church.​

Three constables' truncheons and hand-grips were discovered in the old parish chest, which in 1909 had not been opened for 20 years, owing to the loss of the keys.
They belong to the reigns of King George IV. (1820), King William IV. (1830), and Queen Victoria (1837).

These truncheons were assigned by the ruling monarchs to the High Sheriff of the county, who was entrusted with the execution of the law. The High Sheriff then handed over the truncheons to the squires of the villages, who, in turn, sought out some worthy villager to act as constable and keep order, presenting him with a truncheon, hand-grip and a key as aids to carrying out his duties.

The earliest constable's account book in the village chest at Newchurch is dated 1813.*
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*there is a list of the village constables available at Culcheth Library,
dated 1665 - 1776

Most of you will have read the story of Ellen Yates. If so, it is not one that is easily forgotten. 
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Click here to read the original story of Ellen Yates.

As we know, Ellen lost both of her parents, James and Margaret Yates, within a few weeks of each other, in early 1870.
​The next we know of Ellen is the April 1871 Census, where she is still at home with her brother James as the head of household. 

She must have been in a state of distress and confusion during the time of the census, as just four months later, she gave birth to a baby girl. The girl was born at Hop Yard Farm, Croft and was named Margaret. 
No father is on the birth certificate, thus no baptism is registered.

​Margaret had been born prematurely and sadly only lived for one month.
​Ellen's brother James registered the death.

​James registered the death on 9th September, stating it had happened that day, but the burial register for Croft Unitarian Chapel says that she died on 7th and was buried on 8th September. I can only assume that she was buried in the family grave, though the name is not on the stone - perhaps because she was illegitimate.

​Somehow, Ellen struggled through the next three years, but must have been overwhelmed with emotion on the weekend that would have been her daughters third birthday. After work on Saturday 8th August 1874, she drowned herself in a marl pit and was found the next day.

IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH

The Buildings of England is an unrivalled series of comprehensive architectural guides covering every English county all periods from prehistoric times to the present day.
​The South Lancashire volume was first published in 1969.

Atherton (Chowbent)

UNITARIAN CHURCH, Bolton Old Road. Built in 1721 as a Presbyterian chapel. Enlarged in 1901. Brick with arched windows in two tiers. Nice open cupola. Bulgy stone gatepiers.
 
Cadishead

ST MARY, Liverpool Road. 1891 by J. Lowe. No tower. The W end is incomplete.

WESLEYAN CHAPEL, Liverpool Road. 1873-4. Red brick with a pedimental gable. Italianate, if anything.

On the W side of the road is one three-bay Georgian house with a column-porch.

Croft

CHRIST CHURCH, Lady Lane. 1832-3 by Blore, a Commissioners’ church. It cost £1457. Red sandstone, S W steeple with wholly incorrect spire of quite an enterprising design. Lancet windows and short chancel. The galleries have been removed.

ST LEWIS (R.C.), Little Town. 1826-7. Brick, to the E the church, to the W and flush with it the priest’s house. The latter has a chequer front and a doorway with recessed columns, the former arched windows and a W pediment and pedimented W porch. The E wall inside is distinguished by pilasters, as the Catholics liked it.
 
Culcheth

HOLY TRINITY, Newchurch. 1904-5 by Travers & Ramsden. Incredibly retardataire. This brand of neo-Norman might be 1850. – BRASS. A brass inscription to Elizabeth Egerton 1646 is signed John Sale sculpsit – an oddity of the first order.

LITTLE WOOLDEN HALL, 1 ½ m. WSW. Brick, c.1800. A seven bay front with the three middle bays a little recessed. Niches l. and r. of the doorway.
 
Glazebrook
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STATION. With gables with divers patterns to the bargeboards. The water basin with dock leaf is dated 1872.

Glazebury

ALL SAINTS. 1851 by E. H. Shellard.

HURST HALL. Mr Jeffrey Howarth allowed me to mention the barn, which must have been the hall of a house and seems to date from the C15. It has heavy timbers: tie-beams on arched braces, cusped kingposts and cusped raking queenposts, and three tiers of quatrefoiled wind-braces.

LIGHT OAKS HALL. The E side is spectacular, evidently possible only if the house was originally much larger. It consists of a five-plus-five-light transomed window on the ground floor with the doorway close to it, a window of the same size above the other, and five-light windows with transoms further on on the r. There is a date 1657 inside and that suits the façade fragment. See image above.

Hollins Green

ST HELEN. 1735 the body of the church, and perhaps the cupola. All other detail 1882.

Irlam

ST JOHN BAPTIST. Liverpool Road, Jenny Green, Higher Irlam. 1865-6 by J. Medland Taylor. Small, with a crossing tower with broach spire, very short transepts, and an apse. The W wall has a most unorthodox rose-window. Internally the Taylor touch is the crossing arches of voussoirs of alternating thickness – just as in certain Georgian door surrounds. And whereas this motif is used simply and straightforwardly in the arches of the S windows, in the crossing arches it is done in two orders. Inside the roof timbers start very low, and the church is made lighter by dormers in the roof.

ST TERESA (R.C.), Liverpool and Astley Roads. 1903 by Oswald Hill.

Risley

ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY SITE. A Large area with a number of big blocks with curtain walls. 1956 etc. They are by T. L. Viney and R. S. Brocklesby. Two large, six-storeyed office blocks plus laboratories and a reactor.

Winwick

MYDDLETON HALL, 1m. E. Dated 1658, but the gables evidently C19. Brick. The front is symmetrical, with one recessed bay between two projecting bays. Mullioned-and-transomed windows.
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MYDDLETON HALL FARMHOUSE (Or Delph House). Dated 1657. Not symmetrical, with a little raised brick decoration.

​On the 13th instant, one William Higginson, of Culcheth, near Leigh, having charg’d a Gun with an intent to shoot at some Crows, sat down at his Door with the Gun upon his Knees, in order to do something at the Flint, when it accidentally went off, and by recoiling against his Groin, bruised him so much that he died the next Morning.

TRAP ACCIDENT AT CULCHETH –
​A horse and trap belonging to the late Mr. Whiston, of Croft, was standing in the goodsyard at Culcheth Station on Saturday afternoon when the horse got startled by an engine, and it suddenly set off down the yard and got on to the main line, down which it ran to Lowton St Mary’s Station before it was stopped.
Fortunately no trains were running at the time, The trap was smashed and the horse cut.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT - WARRINGTON
Monday Night - A sad scene took place at the Railway station, in this town, this afternoon. The Birmingham train from Manchester brought a young woman, to all appearance in a dying state, who had been run over by the train as it passed the Kenyon Junction, on the Liverpool and Manchester line.

Her left leg was hanging sadly mutilated from her body, one of her shoulders was dislocated, and her head considerably injured. The shrieks she uttered on being lifted out of the carriage will not be readily forgotten by those who heard them; she was evidently suffering the most intense agony.

The moment the train stopped, every assistance was rendered by Mr Rutter, the agent at the station, and the other persons employed there. The sufferer was conveyed to the Patten Arms Hotel, which adjoins the station, and by the time she was got up stairs, Mr Hunt, surgeon, and Mr. Robson, the house-surgeon to the Warrington dispensary, were in attendance.

On examination, it was found that the wheels of the engine had passed along the left leg from the centre of the thigh down to the foot, and that the limb was crushed to a complete mummy.

Amputation was immediately resorted to. The operation was performed by Dr Hunt. The poor woman was insensible during the greater part of the operation; she gradually sunk, and did not survive longer than a quarter of an hour after it had been performed...

From inquiries made since the accident, I learn that the deceased was a hand loom weaver, named Johanna Sankey, of Croft, in this county. She was an interesting, good-looking girl, in the 23d year of her age.

The engineer in charge of the train states that the deceased ran across the rails at the Kenyon Junction just as the train was passing, when it was not more than a few yards from her; that the engine knocked her down, and the whole train passed over her. He stopped the engine immediately, and no medical assistance being at hand, it was deemed advisable to bring her on to Warrington, after a ligature had been applied by a passenger to the bleeding and fractured limb.

She had been to Liverpool to nurse a sick brother, filling the situation of porter at Blezard's liquor vaults. Her brother, it seems, had sufficiently recovered to permit of his removal to Croft, and accordingly they both came to the Kenyon Junction by the first train, leaving Liverpool at a quarter before twelve o'clock.

A spring cart was waiting to convey them to Croft from the station, and just after her brother and his luggage had been got into it, she found that he had left his stick on the opposite side of the rails. This led to her untimely death. She ran towards the stick but had scarcely advanced five yards when the Birmingham train came up and killed her, as a'ready described.

The image above shows just how neatly the burial ground was kept whilst the chapel was open. If you look at the gentleman walking down the path, you can see the two original yew trees next to him.
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All of the trees, plants and grass are immaculate in the few images available from over the years.
​The last 30 years are where you can really see the difference.
​In 1993, you can still see the two trees, though they seem to be growing bigger.

By 2006, the two yew trees now look like one and have grown out in every direction.

By September 2021, the two trees have fully merged into one and have brambles and ivy growing between the branches. They are damaging the graves and the path.

The maintenance of the graveyard is the legal responsibility of Warrington Borough Council, but as you probably know, they do little more than cut the grass every six weeks or so. Despite bringing this to their attention, they have done nothing different.

Thankfully, Croft Parish Council were willing to listen and to help. They have agreed to pay for a specialist landscaping team to cut back the yew trees to two individual trees at a managable size and also to clear the remaining weeds and overgrowth around the grounds.

​Work is due to begin soon. Thankyou, Croft Parish Council!

Those who have read the sad story of Ellen Yates will know that she was employed as a mill hand in Birkenhead, according to her death certificate.
I had assumed she must have travelled there by horseback, or even walking. Somebody else suggested that she may have had lodgings in Birkenhead, which is also possible.

It is unlikely we will ever know for certain how she travelled to work and how often, but I wanted to look further into it.

I came across an advertisement in a copy of the Leigh Chronicle from 1856 showing train times and prices.

Leigh would probably still have been too far out for her to walk, though she did have family in Leigh at the time.

Culcheth Station wasn’t opened until 1884, after her death, which ruled out her travelling from there. I then found that another local station, Kenyon Junction Station, had been open to the public from 1831.

An estimate of the distance from where she lived (Hop Pole Farm) to Kenyon Junction is about two and a half miles, which she could have easily walked.
The train journey took one hour and forty minutes, meaning a long day for her if this was the method she used.
The Kenyon Junction Station was on the Liverpool to Manchester Line and there were many routes to Birkenhead mills available from Liverpool Crown Street Station.