52 Residents in 52 weeks 1 'fresh start'

I did this a few years ago and blogged about a selection of local residents covering a wide range of fields. I've been challenged to do it again, this time using the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks prompts of Amy Johnson Crow. And always been one up for a challenge (aka never knowing how to say 'no'), here goes. Some will be people who have been blogged about before, others will be new. Some will be detailed, others brief or even a picture. Some may not even be about residents but hey…

The first prompt is 'fresh start'. Well I can think of a number of residents who have made a fresh start in Springhill, many who migrated into the area for work or after marriage. However I'm gong to go with two religious communities who made fresh starts in their faith in the turbulent times of the mid 17th century.

The first is the Quaker community of Chapel Hill, It is unknown when the Quakers first began to meet in the area but the burial ground was in use from 1663, just 15 years after Fox had his revelation on Pendle Hill, 8 miles of so north of there. The Quakers now meet 3 miles over the moor in Crawshawbooth.

The second is the Baptist church at Sion in Springhill itself which has met there since 1672 (when the dissenting congregation known as the Independents was granted a licence to worship in the barn of John Picoope) and possibly earlier, although the legend of the curate of the local parish church resigning his living over the 1662 Act of Uniformity is almost certainly false. The church is still active.

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