Wilmslow

From the archives by George Dearsley

February 27 2013

We came upon Northcliffe Chapel.

This is a Unitarian Chapel, coincidentally the branch of religion under which your diarist’s fiancée had been brought up and so under which he was married.

I undertook no great study of the Unitarian doctrines before the ceremony but did observe that the cleric before whom I swore my marriage vows had himself been married four times. Food for thought, indeed.

The Styal Chapel has existed since 1823, funded entirely by benefactor and local mill-owning  tycoon Samuel Greg and built for the princely sum of £307 18s.

Despite his welcome beneficence, the tightwad was too mean to put in any heating.

Greg founded Quarry Bank Mill, a cotton mill, in 1784. By 1832 it had become the largest spinning and weaving business in the UK, employing more than 300 people.

His descendants would inter-marry with most important merchants and manufacturers of the time, including the Lyles (of Tate & Lyle) and the Rathbones (Liverpool merchants).

In such a rural location Belfast-born Greg felt obliged to provide housing for his (slaves) sorry workers, and as a result the village grew considerably. The next step was to establish institutions to meet the educational, social and religious needs of the villagers.

On 22 August 1822 locals were invited to lay a brick for the foundation of the new Chapel, which officially opened the following year.

The original Chapel was a simple building, somewhat on the lines of a typical nonconformist meeting house of the previous century. It was rectangular in shape as were the wooden windows. There was no chancel and the building ended where the present step into the chancel is today. The original doorway, which can be clearly seen from the outside, was at the end facing the village green. There was a flat roof, a small belfry and no porch.

Samuel Greg (who was a Unitarian himself and later married a Unitarian by the way) built the Chapel for the Baptists, as there was a strong Baptist cause in the neighbourhood.

One notable feature remains from the Chapel's initial use by the Baptists of the village. Under the floor, almost underneath the pulpit, is a full size baptismal tank. John Hewitt of Styal recorded how his father would work with other village lads each Saturday night to carry buckets of water from the nearest pump at Oak Farm. It has not been used for nearly 180 years.

Amongst the scant records there is an amusing account of the trials and tribulations of choosing the first minister. Samuel Greg's daughters favoured Reverend Halford Jones, a minister they had heard preach at Nuneaton.  He was good looking and had a way with the ladies, (The Leslie Phillips of his day, maybe) but their father thought this would distract the congregation from the sermon.

Instead, a boring, ugly old fart called Mr Metcalfe from Bolton was invited to preach, but as soon as he stepped into the pulpit, his nose began to bleed profusely. He was forced to leave without taking the service, and the handsome Reverend Halford Jones became the first minister at Norcliffe. He was granted £80 a year and a house provided by Mr Greg.