Updated - March, 2008
Lowe House Chapel Windle Abbey
St. Helens Register Office -
Central
Street, St Helens, WA10 1UJ.
Tel: 01744 23524 or 732012.
St Helens takes its name from a chapel which was first mentioned in 1552
At that time the area that is now St Helens was divided into 4 townships. They were Eccleston, Windle, Parr and Sutton.
Though the area was mainly agricultural, coal mining was carried out as early as the 16th century. The town of St Helens grew up because it had readily available supplies of coal and sand for making glass.
By the 1801 the population of the 4 townships that made up St Helens was 7,570. By 1821 it was about 10,000 and by 1851 about 15,000. In 1901 St Helens had a population of 84,000 but it grew only slowly during the 20th century. By 1971 the population had risen to 98,000.
St Helens gained a gas supply (for light) in 1832. St Helens Town Hall was built in 1839. The Market Hall was built in 1851. St Helens gained its first police force in 1840. In 1845 a body of men was formed with powers to pave, clean and light the streets of St Helens.
However like all mid 19th century towns St Helens was crowded, dirty and unhealthy. There were outbreaks of cholera in 1849 and 1854. However conditions improved in the later 19th century.
Although the first reference to this chapel of St. Helens was found in a document of 1552 it is possible that the original structure dated back to the fourteenth century and was responsible for attracting a small settlement of farms and houses within its reach. There is no evidence today of this early village but in 1956 construction work near the junction of Bridge Street and Church Street unearthed two old wells and grain pounders, thought to have belonged to an old farm situated on this site several hundred years previously.
Other religious buildings exist in the form of Windleshaw Chantry, known locally as the “abbey”, being a tiny chantry chapel founded about 1453 by Sir Thomas Gerard to provide a place to celebrate mass for the souls of the Gerard family.
St. Helens remained a small village until the Industrial Revolution altered its nature immeasurably. Coal was first documented as being mined in Sutton in the sixteenth century though there is a possibility that pits had been dug in the area many years previously.
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