A MASSIVE project to chronicle the history of every church and school in Horwich has been undertaken by members of the town’s Heritage Society.

Horwich Heritage has collected masses of interesting material over the last six months and the project is now moving towards its conclusion with an open day and exhibition on Saturday, August 13.

A church and chapel – which is now Holy Trinity Parish Church – has stood in the centre of Horwich since 1552 and the earliest school (excluding Rivington) built next to the parish church dates from 1793.

Horwich Heritage chairman Stuart Whittle said: “The growth of churches and schools has mirrored the growth of the town, it has grown from a tiny village to a large town.”

The growth is in no small part due to the Horwich Loco Works and the Wallsuches bleach works of course. Horwich was a hamlet of only 300 people until the Ridgways began building their bleach works in 1777 and the family built the first school in 1793 as the population rose quickly to 3,000. Stuart explains: “But that increase was eclipsed 100 years later when the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company chose Horwich as the site for their new Locomotive Works in 1884. As the population grew from 3,000 to 12,000 in only 10 years a major building programme of churches and schools was necessary to meet the demands of the new residents.

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And it is from this period — 100 years ago — that most of the churches and schools in Horwich date.”

But with religious observance and educational practice and requirements changing increasingly, older premises — and even not so old premises — explains Stuart are being swept away “and with them the memories that were created there”.

He adds: “That is why it is so important to document these changes while those who remember them are still around.

“In Horwich, in the last 50 years, there have been significant reductions in the number of non-conformist churches with the loss of Victoria, Fall Birch and Brunswick Methodist Churches and only last week Horwich Moor Methodist Chapel closed its doors for the last time after 147 years.”

The number of URC (formerly Congregational and Presbyterian Churches) has also reduced, says Stuart and the Baptist and Unitarians have gone from the town.

Schools have also “been in a state of flux”, he says.

“In recent years St Catherine’s Primary School has been rebuilt on a site near to the original and Chorley New Road Infants’ School has been demolished,” says Stuart.

However, some of the primary schools dating back more than 100 years still remain today which is a fascinating feature of the town’s illustrious history.

The schools that boast such longevity are Lord Street Primary School, St Mary’s RC Primary and Horwich Parish CE School where the current premises date from 1833. Chorley New Road Primary School is set to be replaced with a new building on an adjacent site.

Stuart has a mixed view about change which we are sure many of our Looking Back readers will empathise with.

“We believe in progress and change is generally for the better but as we get older it is difficult not to be nostalgic for sermons, church walks, rose queens, pantomimes and bazaars or even for cross country running or semolina pudding,” he says.

Anyone going along to have a look at what Horwich Heritage has on display will be delighted to find there are school log books dating from the 1870s which have some very interesting daily information recorded in them.

There are also exercise books containing beautiful hand writing — a great deal of school time used to be taken up with ensuring students wrote very carefully and legibly — and these date back to the early 1900s.

Punishment books dating up to the 1970s are also on display for visitors to take a look at.

There are Sunday School prizes on display as well as concert programmes and plenty of fascinating photographs to enjoy taking a good look at. Who knows you may well see someone you know on the images.

“If you were brought up in Horwich there must be something in the wealth of material we have collected that resonates with you and that you can most definitely relate to.

“We look forward to bringing your memories alive,” says a delighted Stuart.

Although the open day and exhibition is on Saturday August 13, from 10am to 1pm, the exhibition will then run for three months allowing people to go along and see the collection — from 2pm to 4pm on weekdays and from 10am to 12.30pm on Saturdays.