Churches in Burtonwood

Churches

St Michael's

The Chapel of Burtonwood was founded in 1605 by Sir Thomas de Bold, when Burtonwood was part of the Parish of Warrington. It was consecrated by the Rt Rev John Lord, Bishop of Chester, on December 16th 1634 in the presence of Richard Bold and Thomas Ireland of Bewsey.

During the Commonwealth, Burtonwood became a separate Parish, and it caused excitement for many of the Americans who came to Burtonwood in WW11 to discover that an early incumbent of the Church, the Rev. Samuel Mather, had sailed to America in 1635 with his father, the Rev. Richard Mather, to join the Pilgrim Fathers. Samuel returned to this country and became Vicar of Burtonwood - and probably the first American in the village.

Restoration and Renewal

The present building was erected about 1716. Some of the old oak beams of the old oak beams from the original Chapel were incorporated in the gallery of the Church, but because of decay the gallery was taken down in 1939, when the entire building was restored and enlarged.

By 1893 the Church was considered too small and unsafe, and efforts were made, without success, to collect Ł1,000 towards the cost of Ł8,000 to build a new church in Green Lane, Burtonwood. The top of the old tower was taken down in 1932.

In 1936 the Rev. Thomas Cowing closed the Church and held services in the Church Hall. A sum of more than Ł1,000 was collected towards the cost of restoration, and the old Church, which had stood on the same site for so long, was restored at a cost of Ł4,390. (A lot of this money was donated by Joan Forshaw). The south wall was taken down and a new aisle added. A new tower was built, in which an ancient bell and clock were placed. A new baptistry, choir and priest vestries were added in the west wing, and the interior was refurnished in selected oak, with a new altar, choir screen, pulpit, lectern and pews.

An organ, the gift of St Michael's, Blundellsands, was also installed. New stained glass windows were put in on the north and south sides of the Church, and on these the crests of notable families connected with Burtonwood from the past are shown.

The Church was reopened and consecrated on September 30th 1939, in the reign of King GeorgeVI, by the Rt Rev H Gresford-Jones, Suffragan Bishop of Warrington. In 1966, as a result of mining subsidence, extensive repairs to the Church were carried out, including the complete redecoration of the interior.

Community and Church

Before 1784, no records were kept of burials within the Parish. One headstone bears the date 1777, but there are others, much older, which are too weathered to read.

A cemetery of two acres was formed was formed in 1900 under the control of the Parish Council, Lord Lilford, Lieut. Col. Charles Lyon J.P. (who was Lord of the Manor) and Richard Evans & Co of Haydock (the chief landowners).

A Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to St Paul of the Cross, was erected in Burtonwood in 1886, and a Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1907.

Records of 1924 show that the net yearly value of the Vicarage was Ł294. A new and smaller Vicarage was erected in 1964 on the same site where the Vicars of Burtonwood had lived from the early 17th century.

After it was decided that the old Parish hall in Green Lane, now demolished, was too large and too isolated to serve the Parish well, a new Ł13,000 Church hall was built in 1971, which now stands proudly off Chapel Lane.