Early History
There has been a place of worship in Daresbury since Anglo Saxon times at least, with the earliest believed to have been in the corner of Newton Lane and Chester Road. This would have been a timber structure, so nothing of it remains.
A chapelry was founded on the current site circa 1159 by the Prior of Norton Priory as a chapel of ease within the parish of All Saints’, Runcorn – built so that it wasn’t so far for local villagers to go and worship.
This was probably a simple structure of only wood and plaster, and it remained so until around the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1541) when the tower was constructed in stone. It is likely that it is around this time that the rest of the building was rebuilt in stone also, as there are a number of wills noting bequests for “repairs to the chapel of Daresbury”.
The church was visited in 1572 notes taken at Daresbury mention, among other coats then existing in the stained glass, the arms of Hallum, Daniel, Dutton, Warburton, Starkey, Norris and Aston, and gravestones in the churchyard marked with crosses, the heads of which were flores, and which had swords at the sides of them indicating most probably the graves of Crusaders.
In 1870 the building underwent a complete rebuild under the hands of builders Swindell and Little of Manchester under instruction of Lancaster architects Edward Paley (left) and Herbert Austin (right), using red sandstone from the nearby Keckwick quarries.
During the rebuild, the Jacobean rood loft and screen, described by Raymond Richards as “pure Welsh type”, were destroyed, and the loss was decried by Richards as “nothing short of a major calamity”. The matched pulpit survived however, and is still in service.
One of the arguments was that images on the new reredos were inappropriate, but during the case it was pointed out that the original “genealogical head” was believed by some to be Bacchus surrounded by bunches of grapes, and that the figure had been recycled from the rood loft some 25 years earlier!
This figure is infact a green man, and he can still be seen today in the reredos
The church owns some fine examples of Georgian communion silverware; a flagon inscribed “The gift of Mr John Eaton, deceased, for the use of Darsbury Chappelry, 1738”, a paten inscribed “The gift of Richard Brooke Esq, to Daresbury Church, AD 1746” and, perhaps most poignant, a chalice given by George Heron in 1771 following the deaths of 2 of his daughters and inscribed “Purchased with money in the dawn of youth left behind by two lovely sisters Felicia and Frances Elisa Heron in life and in death undivided who, from a very early age had, by their earnest desire assiduously received the bread of life and the cup of blessing”
There are two fonts at Daresbury, with the 16th Century one now residing outside, replaced in the Victorian age by the one seen inside today. The 16th century one that baptised thousands of persons over the centuries, including the child that would grow up to become Lewis Caroll, now sits outside, replaced by the Victorian one gifted by Miss Elizabeth Wood, and with an ornate wooden cover gifted by Lady Greenall.
Hidden in the belltower is a curious acrostic poem on the name of Daresbury:
Dare not to come into this sacred place
All you good ringers but inawfull grace;
Ring not with hat, nor spurs, nor insolence;
Each one that for every such offence
Shall forfeit hat, or spurs, or twelve pence;
But who disturbs a peel, the same offender
Unto the box his sixpence down shall tender.
Rules such no doubt in every church are used
You and your bells that may not be abused.
Peter Powton
John Okell
Churchwardens, 1730
With nearly 1000 years of worship behind it, there have been many incumbents at All Saints’, and research is ongoing to learn more about them and the parish they served.
All Saints’ Incumbants
