Billinge / Billinge nr. Wigan / Bollynge / Bulling / Bullynth / Bylnge

We have not found an entry for Billinge in the Domesday survey; at the time it was one of several 'berewicks' in the hundred of Newton [Neuetone]. The Victoria County History (Lancaster, vol. 4, 1911) notes: "A chapel of ease was built here in the time of Henry VIII [i.e., 1509-1547] at the cost of the inhabitants, who also paid the priest's wages. (fn. 30) At the beginning of Mary's reign James Winstanley of Winstanley, 'minding utterly to destroy the same chapel for ever, out of very malice and hate that he had and bore towards the service of God [...] There was 'no preacher' at Billinge in 1590. [...] Eight years later the building was found to be out of repair; there were no books but a Bible, the curate was 'no minister, but one licensed to read.' [...] The Commonwealth surveyors recommended that the chapel should be made a separate parish church, but this does not seem to have been carried out. [...] The minister in charge was ejected in 1662. [...] The old building was demolished and rebuilt in 1717–18. [...] The church has been of late considerably enlarged under the direction of Mr. T. G. Jackson, R.A. The oldest part of the building dates only from 1717 [...] The church became parochial in 1882." The present baptismal font appears modern; it consists of a roughly hemispherical basin with a moulded upper rim, raised on a moulded circular stem and a round-to-square lower base. [NB: we have no information on whether or not the chapel had baptismal rights and font until the building of the 18th century church].