In the year 1838, there was a monstre procession of all the Schools of the town, in commemoration of the Corona­tion of our late Most Gracious Queen Victoria. St. James's Street was closed to vehicular traffic and made into an open dining room for the processionists, after the scholars had retired to the various Schools for coffee and buns.
Extract from " The Watchman," April 22nd, 1839.
Bacup.—On Good Friday, April 17th, the Foundation Stone of a new Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was laid on Mount Pleasant, in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. The Rev. Benjamin Pearce opened the pro­ceedings by singing and prayer, after which Mr. John Dawson read a document, a transcript of which had been deposited in a bottle and placed in the corner stone. The Rev. Benjamin Pearce then, in the name of the Trustees, presented John Earnshaw, Esq., Justice of the Peace, with a new silver trowel, who delivered a very excellent and appropriate address, at the close of which he laid the Foundation Stone, in the name of the Glorious Trinity. Another appropriate hymn was sung. Edmund Dawson, Esq., then gave an address, which, together with that of Mr. Earnshaw, was rendered particularly interesting, from the allusions made to old times, and also from the fact that the fathers of these gentlemen were among the first Methodists in Bacup. Messrs. James and Robert Heyworth, twin brothers and both local preachers, each delivered an impressive address. Mr. James Maden, of Newhallhey, who had that morning presented £50 to­wards that edifice, was then called upon, and he urged the assembly not to despise the day of small things, in­asmuch as the building of the first Methodist Chapel in Bacup was commenced by a poor man offering a crooked sixpence, at the same time promising more as soon as he had it. The congregation immediately sang the verses :
" Saw ye not the cloud arise, Little as a human hand, Now it spreads along the skies, Hangs o'er all the thirsty land, etc, "

In 1841 the new chapel was opened.