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This
strange situation appears to have carried on even after the
1662 Act of Uniformity was passed, forbidding any kind of worship
other than Church of England worship. The strength of Presbyterianism
on Cockey moor was such that the law didn’t have much effect.
However,
things changed for the worse with the passing of the Five Mile
Act in 1667. This act made it a crime for any nonconformist
minister to be found within five miles of any place where he
had been minister. Deprived of a minister and a place of worship
the Presbyterians began to meet and worship in secret in the
hollow of the hills behind what is now Ainsworth Nursing home,
where the upper lodge is today.
Things
changed when Charles II issued the “Declaration of Indulgence”
that suspended all penal laws against nonconformist worship.
After 10 years of persecution, dissenting ministers were once
again free to preach under licence.
On 5th Sept. 1672 a Mr John Lever was granted a licence
to preach at a “new” Presbyterian meeting house on
Cockey Moor in the parish of Middleton. This earlier chapel
was so close to Christ Church that the two congregations could
hear each other singing! Its location remains a mystery, but
we do know it was in existence from 1672 till 1715 when the
present chapel was built.
Built
with locally quarried stone, the splendid new meeting-house
soon became known as Cockey New Chapel. These were the days
before artificial lighting and the chapel’s numerous windows
were carefully positioned to take advantage of the available
natural light. Originally, the north and south walls had two
rows of three mullioned windows and not the two rows of four
we see today.
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How
the south wall would have looked c1715-1775
The
windows in the south wall were the chapel’s main
source of light and for this reason the pulpit would have
been placed just in front of its central windows. The
brilliant sun light from those windows would have provided
ample illumination for the minister when reading from
the bible during the long services. However, it was less
than ideal for the congregation who had to sit facing
the glare from the windows. |
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The
‘front’ of the chapel is the east wall and it appears
to have had two separate entrance doors, each opening directly
onto one of the internal aisles. Unusually, the aisles are not
central, but offset to the south. This made the entrance doors
and the ground floor windows in the rear wall out of symmetry
with the windows above.
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How
the East Wall would have looked c1715-1845
The chapel was built with two internal galleries, each
with its own staircase. The galleries ran along the east
and west walls and the staircases were positioned in the
corners against the north wall (either side of the present
pulpit).
The position of the staircases along the north wall is the
reason for the two internal aisles being offset to the south
and not central. Both aisles contain the graves of early
chapel members and that of the first minister, Mr Joseph
Whitworth. The inscription on his grave states he died 13th
February 1721 and was minister at Cockey for near 25 years.
Further evidence of an earlier meeting house.
The bell cote is an original feature of the chapel and still
houses the bell that was cast in 1728 by Luke Ashton of
Wigan. Close inspection of the bell cote reveals a number
of small faces carved into the stonework.
The louvres in the bell cote appear to be cut from stone
roof tiles. The same stone tiles would have covered the
whole of the chapel roof prior to the re-roofing with Westmorland
slate in 1911. |
The
Old Stables
In
1768, the chapel Trustees acquired an adjacent piece of
land on the north side of the chapel measuring 18 yards
by 6 yards. On it they erected a three-story building
with a yard. The ground floor was a stable for horses
and the two floors above were sitting rooms and “other
apartments for the ease and convenience of such of the
said congregation, whose respective places of abode are
remote from the chapel.” An old fashioned mounting
stock, used when mounting horses, can still be seen next
to the old stable door.
Over
the years this building has also been used as a school,
a reading room and a reform club. The building was sold
the 1970s and is now part of a large house.
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The 1773 Chapel Enlargement
This
plan shows the extent of chapel enlargement in 1773
The
chapel was enlarged in an easterly direction, by adding
the fourth 12-foot section, complete with matching windows
and ceiling to three sections that already existed, thereby
keeping the symmetrical aspect of the building. The
two main entrance doors appear to have been repositioned
in the new east wall and were still in line with the aisles. In
the course of enlargement the east gallery appears to
have been dismantled and complete with its staircase,
moved and reassembled against the new east wall. |
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The
alterations of 1845
In
1845 the undersides of the galleries were lowered to allow
the installation of the new organ and also extended inwards
towards the centre of the chapel. The pulpit was then
moved across to the centre of the north wall and a central
bridging gallery constructed along the south wall to join
up the two existing galleries. The result considerably
increased the seating capacity of the chapel.
Literally
squeezed in, the organ sits on the very base of the
gallery behind the panelling and still almost touches
the ceiling. Originally, the organ was powered by hand
pumped bellows, operated by a lever that projected out
of the right hand side of the organ. It must have been
hard work during long services for one poor member of
the congregation! Today, the organ is “blown”
by an electrically driven fan. At
this time a new boiler house was built on the southwest
corner to house the new heating ‘apparatus’.
A small doorway in the southwest corner of the south wall
was then ‘bricked up’ together with the two
main doorways in the east wall and the small ground floor
widow in the rear wall.
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A
new central main entrance was then created in the east
wall, complete with porch and a magnificent portico,
topped with a stone acorn. In
recent years the acorn became loose and was removed
for safety reasons. It is now in storage awaiting restoration.
More
about the history of Bury Unitarians
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Stephen
Horrocks
July 2007
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