Lancashire Collaborative Ministry

Unitarian Chapel is situated on Knight Hill at the junction of Blackburn Road and Church Street, Padiham. It was completed in 1874 at a cost of about £5000, replacing the original 50-year old church which had become too small and was in an inconspicuous position in a back street.

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It was designed by Padiham architect Virgil Anderton (then in his early 20s) to be in the Gothic style, with a tower and octagonal spire reaching to about 100 feet. Inside there are no pillars to obstruct the view or sound. The masonry contract was awarded to his father Cornelius Anderton, a well-known local builder, who had also been the mason for the rebuilding of St. Leonard’s parish church in 1866-69. The Andertons, who were both members of the Unitarian congregation, provided their services for a nominal amount. Joinery work was by Eli Whitehead, also a member of the congregation.

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The Grade II listed church was constructed on a sloping site from coursed sandstone and sandstone ashlar dressing, with a slate roof with gable copings. The Sunday School rooms are located both below the church and in a later extension to the basement. The wall piers and gates, again designed by Anderton, are also Grade II listed.

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Below and behind the church was a sloping field, used for little apart from afternoon tea and games after the annual Whit Walk. However for those boys living fairly close by it was a convenient place in which to play football and cricket. It was eventually converted into a car-park in 1999.

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Underneath the church there is a large room with a stage, compete with full-length curtains. A stage door gave convenient access from the pavement which slopes downhill at the side of the church.

 

Several side-rooms were used as Sunday Schools. Two stairways led from the room up to the church. This large room was used for various social functions including the annual Sale of Work. It connected to a schoolroom extension that was built in 1904 which comprised a large room and several smaller rooms, including a kitchen, a Primary, and indoor toilets.

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In 1888 a stained glass window was unveiled behind the altar in the chancel. It was the gift of Mrs. Eli Whitehead, whose husband had been responsible for the joinery in the church. At the bottom of the window are likenesses of the two men most responsible for bringing Unitarianism to Padiham, John Robinson and James Pollard, both of who died in 1848, and were buried in the old Unitarian Chapel’s graveyard. The gravestone of John Robinson and his wife was later moved to the new church and currently lies besides a rear wall. 

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A splendid electronic organ made by Phoenix Organs was installed in 2004, that replaced the old (1881) pipe organ that the author remembers had an electric blower and also a backup lever for the manual bellows, if required. The original organ pipes are no longer used but remain on view, beautifully decorated with a design scaled to the size of each pipe, and highlighted with gold-leaf.

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The church was built on plot of land, the purchase of which in 1867 is of considerable interest.​

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Opposition to the Unitarians’ beliefs existed throughout the early 19th century and still existed in the late 1860s when land for a new Nazareth Chapel was being sought, but local land-owners refused to rent their land for this purpose. However, using a neat stratagem in the face of this sectarian prejudice suitable land was bought at auction for £420, where the chapel could be built in a more prominent position than before. This was Lot 3, auctioned at the Bull Hotel Blackburn, Wednesday 20 March 1867.

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The Unitarian Methodists held their first meetings in a cottage situated in Back Lane (now East Street) from about 1806 until their first chapel, now known as the Old Nazareth Chapel, was built in 1822/3 on a site at Old Spring Gardens, opposite 34-50 West Street.

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In the 1820s, there was a lot of opposition by Wesleyan Methodists to the Unitarians and the proposed chapel building, and opponents began buying up all suitable plots of land to thwart them, but eventually a plot was procured and building started in 1821, with the congregation digging the foundations themselves. The site had previously been the location of the original Wesleyan meeting house, a thatched cottage built about 1748. During the construction of the chapel, opponents continued to interfere with its construction, even extending to pulling down by night work done during the day.

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Completed in 1823, the Unitarians opened their new meeting house, which they called Nazareth Chapel.