THE oldest chapel in Warrington is opening its doors to the public as part of National Heritage Day.
On Saturday September 11 Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel will be open from 10 am to 4pm.
Founded in 1662, it is the oldest chapel in Warrington and has links with many well-known people and the Warrington Academy. Writer Anna Barbauld was a member and John Howard, the prison reformer, worshipped in the chapel.
Joseph Priestley – the discoverer of oxygen – was both married and ordained a minister in the chapel and Frederick Monks, who gave the Golden Gates to Warrington, is buried in the burial ground.
Also buried there is the young son of Elizabeth Gaskell the novelist and her husband William, a Latchford boy, who became one of the foremost Unitarian Ministers of his day and a noted educationalist and social reformer.
On Sunday September 19 at 3pm the chapel is holding its Annual Academy Service, when there will be talk on the life of William Gaskell.
