Horwich - Religion

Religion

It is not known when Horwich's first chapel was built. It was a chapel of ease to St Mary's Church in Deane, but in 1565 the commissioners for "removing superstitious ornaments" took various idolatrous items from the chapel. In 1669 a conventicle, meeting of nonconformists, was reported at Horwich and the ringleaders were prosecuted. A chapman, Philip Martindale, was among those whose estates were sequestrated for 'delinquency' by Parliament during the Civil Wars. In 1672 a nonconformist service was held at Old Lords Farm, the home of Thomas Willoughby. After the Civil War, with the contrivance of Thomas Willoughby and the connivance of the vicar of Deane, the chapel was used by nonconformists.

In 1716 Bishop Gastrell of Chester recovered the chapel for the established church. The chapel was replaced in 1782 and rebuilt as Holy Trinity Church, a Commissioners' Church, in 1831. Until 1853 became a parish in its own right with Holy Trinity as the parish church.

After being ejected from Horwich Chapel, Richard Pilkington built "New Chapel" for the nonconformists between 1716 and 1719. It was enlarged in 1805. In the 18th and 19th centuries other nonconformist churches and chapels were built. Horwich Lee Chapel was formed in 1754 by Presbyterian members of the congregation of Rivington Unitarian Chapel. A chapel was erected in 1856, replacing one built in 1774. It became Lee Lane Congregational Church and closed in 2005. A preacher from Bolton introduced Methodism in the early 19th century and a chapel opened in about 1810. The Independent Methodist chapel in Lee Lane was built in 1867, "the congregation having originated some years earlier in a gathering of teetotallers". Primitive Methodists had a chapel on Horwich Moor and a Baptist church was built in 1890.

Before 1884 Roman Catholics attended mass at Anderton Hall. In 1886, Father Hampson opened St Mary's Roman Catholic Church on Chorley New Road. The church and presbytery built by Father McGrath date from 1906. Its two altars are the work of Ferdinando Stuflesser.