Over 1100 years of history

There has been a church on St Chad's site for over 1100 years. It features in the Doomesday Book and the font that stands at the back of the current Victorian church was made before the Norman conquest.

In the grounds of St Chad's, between the church and Old Hall Lane, the foundations of an earlier church can clearly be seen. At one end of the church is the remains of a small plinth where St Chad's font once stood - near where the door would have been. At the other end is a monument where the altar once stood. The monument reads in English and in Latin
'Here for a thousand years stood an altar to the Lord. I see that all things come to an end.'
In today's context this sounds very defeatist. This monument was actually erected as a huge new church was being dedicated to replace the small sixteenth century church that had been its immediate predecessor. To the Victorian reader it would have read in a very triumphant way.

Please also visit:

this is a web site particularly for schools packed full of ideas on how to use St Chad's as a learning resource.

People in Kirkby have been baptized in the font now situated at the back of St Chad's since Saxon times. This is the oldest object in the town that has been made by human hand. Many people who come and view it find their spirits stirred by the thought that families have gathered around it to dedicate their children to God for over 1000 years and we continue to do so today.

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The material on this website is copyright © The Kirkby Team Ministry 2009
The Kirkby Team Ministry is the style adopted by the Parochial Church Council of Kirkby which is an excepted charity serving the ecclesiastical parish of Kirkby in the Diocese of Liverpool as part of the Church of England.