Originally Posted by cashman (Post 944317)

Which poses another question, the sheep n cattle were always herded down Maudsley St n then down the Pleck to the slaughterhouse, wonder which farm/farms they came from?

Originally Posted by Bob Dobson (Post 945415)

Retlaw tells a great story about the coffins being taken out of Macpelah. I will let him tell us.,

Originally Posted by susie123 (Post 961084)

That quote was from Willow the Whisp in a 2007 thread about Hyndburn Road.

I have just been reading a book called The Baptist Churches of Accrington & District by Robert J V Wylie which was written in 1923. It was my dad's though I have no idea where it came from as our family have no Baptist associations.

The book has several chapters on Machpelah and says:

Next the river Hyndburn was an open baptistry -as near the river as it could be got. If the Hyndburn had not been characterised by two things - its shallowness and its filth,
Way back when that chapel was first opened the river was fairly clean.
the baptistry would never have been erected. It was impossible to baptise in the river, so they built a baptistry as near the river as they possibly could, and for years the open baptistry remained, but when they ceased to use it the stones were removed.

The book also says that the chapel was taken down soon after the new chapel was built in Blackburn Road (opened in April 1836) but the schoolhouse remained for some years and continued to be used for funerals. Blackburn Road was superseded by Cannnon Street in 1872.

Originally Posted by susie123 (Post 961120)

You were there then were you Walter?;)

I'll grant you that as the building was occupied first in 1765 the river would have been clean-ish as there wouldn't have been much industry. The shallowness might still have been a problem for a good dunking.

Originally Posted by susie123 (Post 961084)

That quote was from Willow the Whisp in a 2007 thread about Hyndburn Road.

I have just been reading a book called The Baptist Churches of Accrington & District by Robert J V Wylie which was written in 1923. It was my dad's though I have no idea where it came from as our family have no Baptist associations.

The book has several chapters on Machpelah and says:

Next the river Hyndburn was an open baptistry -as near the river as it could be got. If the Hyndburn had not been characterised by two things - its shallowness and its filth, the baptistry would never have been erected. It was impossible to baptise in the river, so they built a baptistry as near the river as they possibly could, and for years the open baptistry remained, but when they ceased to use it the stones were removed.

The book also says that the chapel was taken down soon after the new chapel was built in Blackburn Road (opened in April 1836) but the schoolhouse remained for some years and continued to be used for funerals. Blackburn Road was superseded by Cannnon Street in 1872.

Originally Posted by Frank T (Post 1239962)

A lot of the cattle and sheep taken down Sandy Lane came from farms up Sandy Lane, I used to help my uncle and farmer Philip Flanagan drive the animals down to the abbatoir I can`t remember the name of the street location. It was usually done at weekends but may have been done midweek when I was at school.

Originally Posted by Atarah (Post 944571)

Absolutely correct Cashman. It was indeed a very old Baptist Chapel known as Machpelah. It was on Hyndburn Rd, near to where we once had the old gasworks (Electricity St area of town). Hyndburn Road used to be Hagg Lane in past times. I dont remember the chapel, just the grounds full of lovely old "table top" graves. The graveyard was known as "God's Acre". Many old inhabitants apparently referred to it as "The Baptists in Gas House Lane" (being the area where the gas works also was). And yes, there's where the poor sheep and cattle had their last nibble of grass before "being taken across the road".

Homebase on Hyndburn Road now built on the same site.