A STORY OF ST HELENS

Councillor Patricia Anne Robinson, B.Ed C Hons, Cert. Ed) by Christopher Byworth

This is the story of our town and its parish church of St Helens. The question is: 'Who was St Helen?' 'How did our town come to be named after her?' Though some think 'our' St Helen was the English wife of a minor Roman emperor, called Magnus, who ruled Britain and part of France and Spain for a few years in the 380's AD. This is a late mediaeval guess. More probably 'our' St Helen was the far more famous mother of Constantine, one of Rome's greatest emperors. He was the first emperor to become a Christian, and was influenced partly, no doubt, by his strongly Christian Mum . This Helen, or Helena in Latin, was born in Turkey at Drepanum, a town on the south coast of the Sea of Marmaris. Maybe she was born into a Christian family. By 255 AD when she was born, many in Turkey were Christians. Helena was probably a barmaid or the landlady of a pub when she met and married Constantius Chlorus, a soldier from Bulgaria who was to rise to the very top in the Roman army. Sadly, when by 293 AD, he had so risen, he took on another wife of nobler birth, even though he himself had only been a goat-herd's son. By then their son, Constantine, was about 21 years old and his father had become assistant emperor in the west and was based at York. Whether Helena accompanied him there is doubtful. A series of extraordinary events followed her husband, Constantius' death in 306AD. First Constantine became sole ruler of the western Roman empire after a battle at the Milviian Bridge outside Rome in 312AD which he surprisingly won against his rival, Maxentius. Constantine claimed to have seen a cross in the sky the night before with the words: 'In this sign, conquer!' He ordered his troops to paint a cross on their shields and then won the battle. In some sense Constantine was now a Christian. He was later to become emperor in the east as well and to found the first Christian city of Constantinople or Istanbul. He ruled till 336AD with his mother a very influential figure at his side for much of that time. From 312AD Constantine favoured the church in many ways. His mother, Helena, persuaded her son to build huge churches, known as basilicas, in many major cities especially Rome where the first St Peter's and St Paul's churches were erected. Aged over 70, which in those days would be the equivalent of at least 85 today, Helena visited the Holy Land and founded churches on the Mount of Olives and in Bethlehem over Jesus' birth cave. In Jerusalem, Constantine was excavating before building the church and courtyards which would enclose the probable site of Jesus' cross and his and resurrection cave. Nearby, workmen found some remains of what could have been crosses. They were claimed as those of Jesus and the thieves'. Helena was credited with finding them and taking parts back for churches all over the empire to revere. Now supposed fragments abound everywhere in Christiian Europe. One is even claimed to be in St Helens! Relics became centres of pilgrimage and sources of income and none were more precious than slivers of the true cross. St Helena as well as her son Constantine were widely revered in the middle ages. And so it was that the small chapel on the muddy crossroads between the four small townshipsthe that would eventually comprise our town was dedicated to St Elyn. This chapel was eventually to give our town its name.

The Start Of Church Life

As a town, St Helens did not really come into existence until the seventeenth century; but people had been living in parts of the land now covered by our borough for hundreds of years. The problem any local historian here has is that there are so few written records and no archaeology has been undertaken.

From the 1100's there are references to five villages: Eccleston, Parr, Sutton, Windle and Hardshaw as perhaps part of Windle. The names themselves have Celtic origins and so the villages may go back much further, but nothing is certain. The word 'eccles' is Celtic for ''church'. This would suggest it existed in the Christian era. In England that would be any time after around 400 AD.

By the twelfth century the large parish in which we belonged was that of Prescot. It was huge comprising 15 villages, including our four. This should not surprise Anglicans here as the whole of the town came under the Anglican deanery of Prescot luntil some 13 years ago when the deanery boundaries were re-drawn to coincide more with the borough ones and the Roman Catholic deanery. Only then was it re-named 'St Helens deanery'.

1552 was a significant year in England's church history. Archbishop Cranmer produced his most reformed Prayer Book, about 90% of which became the Book of Common Prayer. I was in this year that records mention the Chapel of Ease, called 'St Elyn's'. It is also spelled 'St Ellins'. It was said to be in Prescot parish and was on a crossroads joining muddy tracks from the four villages and thus on the old Warrington to Ormskirk Road. The document was an inventory made by the king of all that was in the chapels belonging to Prescot parish. Our little chapel had just two items listed, a chalice and a little bell. It was clearly not wealthy and may well have been run down.

We would love to know when it had been built and even whether it was the first such chapel in the area, but there just is no evidence. A chapel of ease was a generous provision made for local people to enable them to worship 'locally' that is with only a three mile walk instead of the 5 or more miles to Prescot. How much the chapel was used nad how or whether it was kept in repair is not known. There was then no endowment or priest here as far as we know. The local people were probably very poor too.

In 1558 Thomas Parr left ten shillings to maintain a priest at the chapel. It is shown on a map of 1579. But by 1592 an official Visitation berates the wardens, a curate and the reader for irregularities. By 1613 the care of the chapel had passed to the Downbell branch of the Roughley family. Katherine Downbell and her son, James, put the building in the care of nine Trustees and we still have trustees to this day! Only local men were eligibile and the names have a familiar ring.

So in 1618 the second Christian building on this site was erected, the Downbell Chapel, part of which was the Roughley school. The period of the Commonwealth was dawning and our church became a Puritan chapel and remained so untiil 1710. Walter Lazenby has written up this history, and that of later Presbyterian worship in their own chapel, in an excellent book 'Thrice Happy Place'.

It is good thought that from the start our church buildings have been used for more Christians than just those of one denomination, though often in the past there was sadly little love lost between them.

Anglican Again And A Town Starts To Grow

In 1710 the Free Church minister of St Elyn's chapel, James Naylor, died aged only 47. By now the Restoration had long since taken place and England was Anglican again. Inevitably the Congregationalists moved out of St Elyn's and formed their own chapel in Brooke Street nearby. It remained there till recent times when it was pulled down and Ormskirk Street URC church was built.

St Elyn's now returned to Prescot and its minister, Theophilus Kelshall, as a Church of England Chapel of Ease. A tower was built in 1715 paid for out of Queen Anne's bounty. Mr Kelshall was the first minister to enter burial, marriage and baptism records there. They record that this home was at Broad Oak, Parr as did hiis successor, Edward Kilner who was minister from 1722-1758. By 1894, 28,546 babies had been baptised in the font. The next minister Peter Berrey was followed by Williiam Finch who records that some babies were vaccinated as well as baptised! Mr Finch's ministry did not end till 1815 by which time major changes to the church were afoot.

Meanwhile the indusrial potential of St Helens was starting to be recognised. Since 1540 coal had been mined as an outcrop at Sutton Heath and Burtonhead. The land became valuable for open-cast mining but problems with water and transport and the use of turf for fuel prevented major development till Liverpool grew and the canal was opened.

In 1666, Liverpool consiisted of 300 houses and 1500 inhabitants but the first transatlantic to anad fro merchant ship had taken Cheshire salt and Lancashire coal to Barbados and brought back raw sugar for refining in Liverpool. By 1715 its first docl had been built and a population and trade explosion was underway. Now cheap coal was a necessity and a turnpiked, good quality road was opened up to Prescot and beyond and it passed the chapel of St Helens en route to Wigan and Rochdale. Local St Helens coal pit owners at last had access to the Liverpool market. Transport prices were still too high and navigation by can al was the next project. The Sankey Brook canal started life with an act of Parliament in 1755. By 1771 about 90,000 tons of coal was passing down the canal in a year.

John Mackay, a Scots-born coal proprietor at Ravenhead was doing well from the coal to America trade. But he had a vision. His coal could fuel any of the new furnace-based industries. So why not bring one to St Helens? Glass bottles had been made at Thatto Heath since 1721. Thanks to Mackay's London financial backers, the British Cast Plate Glass Company's Manufactory was built in Ravenhead and its products sent by canal back to London for sale. It glazed the houses and coaches of the wealthy.

Our town began to expand to house the workers. Fireclay and copper ore were also used in the furnaces. St Helens was being born.

New churches were springing up too. Most famous now is the Quaker Meeting House near the Raven Inn. In 1793 when Roman Catholics were allowed to build churches, St Mary''s Lowe House was erected and the Methodists had their first chapel by 1815.

A new era for the town as well as St Helens Chapel was about to dawn.

Glass, Coal, The Railways And St Mary's

1815 was quite a year for Britain. Napoleon was finally defeated at the battle of Waterloo. It was also the start of a new era for the growing Anglican church at the centre of what was fast becoming the new industriial revolution town of St Helens.

A new minister arrived, the Revd Thomas Pigot. With a fast growing population, the 1618 Downbell chapel of St Ellens was provign too small. A huge extension was to be undertaken. Thiis was made possible by the offer of land to the church from a Mr Bamber Gascoigne. Could he be related to the man from 'University Challenge'? And so there was a large extension to the south over part of the churchyard. The building was now impressive at almost 75 feet square. The cost was a massive £2100, perhaps the equivalent of well over half a million pounds by todays values.It was raised by subscriptions and pew rents in the new building. Yes, you had to pay to have a pew then. Otherwise you sat around the wall, hence the phrase 'the weakest to the wall'. It was still a few years until the Church of England abandoned these rents. Perhaps we should re-introduce them?!

The 'new' bulding was re-named 'St Mary's, I know not why. This dedication lasted until the present church was built some 75 years ago. The local market retains the name. After 1926 'St Mary's became the name of a flourishing daughter church in Keswick Road. In 1837, two bells were hung in the tower in Church Square.

In 1836 with the arrival of James Furnival as the new minister, the 'Vicarage' moved from Parr to Peasley Cross. All of the burgeoning town was still, in Anglican terms, under St Helens-St Mary's. However mining subsidence there caused a new vicarage to be built just four years later in 1840 in Rainford Road, not far from the present one. The next minister also stayed only five years. But then came the massive figure of Canon Carr whose huge portrait still dominates my vestry. He was here for 40 years from 1846-1886 and there are mixed evaluations of his ministry!

Whatever else may be said, after six years in 1852, the break with Prescot church and parish was finally made and St Helens became a ecclesiastical parish in its own right with a full Vicar in charge. It would not be long before large slices of its huge parish would be lopped off to form many new Angliican parishes within St Helens. But even now, in line with most Lancashire towns, St Helens retains the popular title of 'Parish Church' as if there was only one.

Much else was also afoot in these years. Pilkingtons was founded in 1827 though it started life with the dynamic Peter Greenall as partner as well as William and Richard Pilkington. Their father had been a doctor with a small wine and spiriits business 'on the side'! Glass was rapidly becoming the major business of the new town alongside coal. In 1846 local industries used 4000,000 tons of coal and another 700,000 tons was 'exported' via the Mersey and Liverpool. An increasingly large percentage of this was carried not by canal but by the new railways. Sadly we missed out on being on the main Manchester to Liverpool one built in 1830. A branch line was built and a junction formed with the main line later at Junction station. The chemical industry was also growing as soda was produced for both glass and soap manufacture.

The population doubled from 6000 to 12,000 in just 15 years until 1845. Good quality housing did not keep up. Hardshaw was the best area to live in, largely thanks to Peter Greenall. But even this area had but one sewer feeding directly into the Hardshaw brook that soon became very unsavoury and the chemicals did not help.

In 1839 a new town hall was built and the borough was well on the way to being recognised. It would not be long before another era of dramatic change for both town and church.

1850-1914 Rapid Growth In Town And Church

Quickly growing industries of coal, glass, chemicals and transport increased St Helens' population. Housing was prosperous for some but of slum type and unhealthy for others. By 1899, there were over 83,000 people and the borough was not as big as it is now. Many of these came from other parts of Lancashire and a fair proportion in the 1850's after the Irish potato famine came from Ireland.

Throughout this period there were jobs for young men and, increasingly, for women too in nearby cotton mills or in service. But life expectancy was low especially near the alkali works. There was a high mortality rate among children but an even higher birth rate. In 1873, a nine bed hospital was privately provided. The Providence and isolation hospitals came later.

In 1868 a Charter of Incorporation led to St Helens achieving borough status. Its name had been agreed when three of the original townships merged. The name itself, of course, came from the chapel of ease on the Warrington to Ormskirk and Preston to Ashton crossroads. Our church has given the town its name! Even as a borough attracting grants only about half of the housing was included in the boundary and conditions remained even worse outside them.

Slowly improvements came. Sarah Cowley's bequest in 1714 had funded a tiny school for 'poore persons'.. A new school, known as 'Laceys' for boys was built at the bottom of North Road. Gradually new housing came and not only terraced housing. Sewers were eventually built and in the 1890's the council was supplying gas and electricity. In 1889 St Helens became a County Borough with its own first Tory MP. There was a new Town Hall from 1876 and our first Trade Union opened in 1890. Beechams started up their factory in Westfield Street in 1887 with its slogan that its famous pills were worth a guinea a box'.

There was a lighter side to life. Clubs and pubs slaked the immense thirst created by the pits and the furnaces. Twice a year there was a fair and in June the Newton races. From 1862 there was a Theatre Royal and fund raising bazaars were held liin the new Town Hall from 1876. The first rugby team started before 1900.

What of life meanwhile at St Mary's, that is, Parish Church? We left our story in 18886 with Canon Carr's 40 year incumbency ending. His successor was John Eyre. He stayed only four years but a huge spree on improving the buildings happened. The first choir robes also appeared in what had been a black gown church. For 10 Sundays the Town Hall was rented for worship at a cost of £22 overall! In 1888 the famous two bible classes were set up. The opening Sundays the saw 173 men attending and the women's numbers were almost as high.

In 1890 John Willink began his 13 year Vicar-ship. The magazine started in 1892 (what a thought 118 years of our magazine!) and 1000 copies were printed monthly. A major schools building programme ensued and in 1895 the Church Army mission began with Captain Codling and a congregation of 200. St Mary's mission church and school started in the same amazing year. Curates were then increasingly numerous. Mr Willink had a wonderful reputation for spiritual devotion and inspiring leadership.

Cuthbert Bardsle, the next Vicar, 1904-1910 was another great builder and evangelist. Both the old Parochial Hall and St Andrews went up and in the 1908 mission 'many souls passed from death to life'. At the annual meeting he commented on increased congregations on Sundays and Wednesdays. He also married Alice Gamble while here. 11 years ealier though a parishioner had condemned certain youths who habitually leave church during the singing of the anthem! Now they simply do not come!

1910-1918 The Great War And A Great Fire

From now on our story will focus more on St Helens Parish Church rather than the growth and development of the whole town. This is partly because my sources for the whole town are less easily available and partly because most of the significant features of St Helens as a town were in place by 1914.

The chemical alkali works were moved to Widnes early in the 20th century, since production costs were, supposedly, higher in St Helens. This major loss at least led to less environmental problems and Pilkingtons were expanding fast to fill the gap. In the 20 years till 1894, profits increased ninefold to £1.4m. A further £3m was ploughed back mainly into two new factories at Cowley Hill and Grove Street in the years before 1914. In 1901 Ravenhead Glass had been bought out by Pilkingtons for a mere £93,000. Growth at Pilkingtons was to continue until 1939 with the 1920's housing boom and the trend for more and larger windows. Car production in the 1930's also opened a huge new market. Pilkingtons was also manufacturing though not always so successfully overseas for instance in Canada.

Britain's North-West has always produced a high percentage of our soldiers and St Helens in 1914 was no exception. In just four days in September that year as war broke out over 1000 men signed up for the 11th battalion of the South Lancashire regiment. Parish Church Men's Bible Class was to send over 500 recruit. Women started working in the munitions factories with enormous social consequences later in the century. For four years our towns life was geared to war and St Helens lost many sons with many more injured especially on the Somme and at Passchendael.

©Copyright Christopher Byworth
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