Buildings of Interest

Description

1845 designed by Holt.

Following the death in 1762 of the last Bispham heir, Margaret Owen née Bispham, the Bispham Hall Estate was divided between her two daughters, Frances and Mary. The Billinge properties -including the Hall itself- were afterwards sold to the Holt family, eventually descending to brothers John and Robert Holt. The last surviving brother left the property to a remote cousin, Cheshire farmer William Mills, on condition that he change his name to Holt. Coming from a Methodist background, the heir at first joined with local Methodists at their cottage meetings in Upholland, Tontine and elsewhere. Eventually he paid for construction of the chapel that still stands at the corner of Crank Rd and Upholland Rd.

Before his arrival at Bispham Hall, Mr Mills -“found in a field” according to a later account in the Wigan Observer- had been struggling financially. The transformative effect of his inheritance captured the public imagination, being widely reported in both the local and the national press.* Appropriately, the first sermon preached at the chapel in 1845 was on Psalm 40:2: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings”.**

The adjacent Sunday School building on Crank Rd dates from 1912 but was substantially renovated in the late 1970s/early 1980s, being re-opened and re-dedicated on 11 September 1982.

Details of services and other activities can be found at bisphammethodistchurch.org. An account of the congregation's first 150 years -“A House Nigh Unto Heaven”- was written by David Lythgoe in 1994. A condensed version of Dr Lithgoe's book is in Past Forward Issue 54 (April-July 2010).

More information is provided by the Makerfield Rambler. Link