Building record 438/13 - Unitarian Church, Cairo Street

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58776 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Unitarian Church 1744-45, altered and repaired 1863. Brick on stone base, with slate roof, rectangular plan. Brick pilasters with stone capitals to side elevations. Gable end has circular attic window and two entrances with four-panel doors, plain rectangular fanlights, wood surround with pilasters, entablature, and pediments with modillions. Two storeys of windows, semi-circular headed, with brick arches, stone keys and sills, and Perpendicular tracery. Interior said to have eighteenth century wall monuments. Tombstones in graveyard date from early eighteenth century.

<2> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1994, An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England, Lancashire no.254 (Book). SCH4548.

Robert Yates, rector of Warrington, was ejected in 1662 and subsequently gathered a Presbyterian congregation which in 1672 licenced a room in the Court House for it's meetings. In 1689 the society had the use of a barn formerley belonging to Lawrence Eccleston, and in 1703 occupation of the present site near the corner of Cairo street and Sankey street was confirmed in a lease from the Earl of Warrington to the minister, Charles Owen. A house then occupied by a blacksmith whose smithy protuded into Sankey Street was bought about 1719 for use as a Manse.

The present Chapel, on the site of the former, was built in 1745 and originally was approached by a passage from Sankey street. Cairo street, to the West, was laid out in 1846 and then formed principle access. The Chapel was much altered and reffitted c.1860 and later. The congregation have supported a Unitarian ministry since the late 18th century. The close connection between this and the Warrington Dissenting Academy, commenced through the efforts of the minister, John Seddon, in 1757, is recalled by some of the memorial tablets on the walls of the Chapel.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1850-1, Five-feet to the Mile Scale Town Plan of Warrington (Maps and Plans). SCH4485.

This map depicts the chapel with the graveyard to the immediate south. It is labelled as a Presbyterian Chapel.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1890, Metric Ten Foot Scale Town Plan of Warrington (Maps and Plans). SCH4536.

This map depicts the chapel with the graveyard to the immediate south. It is labelled as a Unitarian Chapel with seats for 250.

<5> Marches Archaeology, 2006, The Old School Room, Cairo Street Unitarian, Warrington: Archaeological Evaluation, R2631 (Client Report). SCH4669.

The chapel was founded in 1703 by a Presbyterian congregation, which descended from that established by Robert Yates, the former rector of Warrington parish who was deprived in 1662. The present chapel was constructed in 1745, although it was much restored in the 19th century. The chapel has been of Unitarian affiliation since the late 18th century and the presence of numerous memorials in the enclosed plot around the chapel indicates that much of this area has been used for burial. In addition, a school room was constructed in the south-east corner of the plot in the 19th century.

In 2006, proposals for the demolition and re-development of the school room and its immediate environs as part of a wider development of land east of the chapel grounds, prompted archaeological evaluation trenching. It was thought possible that the area might contain burials, although none are marked in this part of the chapel grounds.The trenching revealed a deep accumulation of soil and several post-medieval drainage features. No evidence of burials was found, however, confirming that the school room and its immediate vicinity have never been used for burials.