The Parish of Leigh in the County of -- Lancashire --

Bethesda Independent Chapel, later Congregational Church
and now United Reformed Church

Location

National Grid 365790,400250 (SD 657002) (click for modern map)

Contact details

Minister: Revd G S McGowan
Address: United Reformed Church, Union Street, Leigh, Lancs, WN7 1AX
Tel: +44 (0)1942 684758
No email or website

Please advise me if you find any of the above details have changed

History

The Bethesda Independent Chapel was opened in Newton Street (behind the present Town Hall site) in 1809.

In 1831 the Congregational Union was formed as a union of independent churches, but I do not know if the Bethesda Chapel joined the union then or later.

The 1844 OS map shows the chapel still in Newton Street but does not identify its denomination. By the time of the 1893 map it had moved to its present location in Union Street (and the old site had become a school) but the denomination is still unidentified on the map, however the 1905 map identifies it specifically as "Congregational Chapel".

The Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church in England merged in 1972 to form the United Reformed Church (although some churches - not this one - elected to stay separate in a Congregational Federation). The Scottish Congregational Church and the Churches of Christ joined the URC later.

I have little more information on the chapel's history at the moment.

Registers

Abbreviations: Bp - baptism (christening), M - marriage, Bu - burial. Others are defined where they first occur.

Original Registers

The original records prior to 1837 were surrendered to the Registrar General under the Non-Parochial Registers Act of 1840. They are at the National Archives (formerly Public Record Office) at Kew under the following reference:
Births and Bp 1810-1837 [RG4 1476]

The surrendered registers have been filmed. The films are available at the NA of course, but also at Lancashire Record Office [MF 1/73], at Manchester Archives and Local Studies (at Manchester Central Library) [MFPR 298] and the film may be hired from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) Family History Library for consultation at any of their Family History Centres [British film no 0560884]. The above film references also include Leigh Wesleyan and Bedford Wesleyan.The surrendered registers are also available on film at Wigan History Shop (WHS) [ref not known].

Transcripts and Indexes

A transcript of Bu 1816-1856 (made in 1881-3) may be consulted at WHS, a transcript of Bu with grave book at Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society

The LDS have also extracted the baptism records onto the IGI. The dates covered and batch numbers are as follows:
Bp 1811-1837 [C078941]