It has been conjectured that the chapel was built by the Birch family sometime between 1558 and 1573 or a little before (but earliest reference here is to 1558). Consecrated by Bishop Chaderton (1579-1595). During the Restoration the Birch family maintained Presbyterian ministers there. Initially this may have been a matter of occasional sermons, but in 1672 it was licensed as a Presbyterian meeting house under the Declaraion of Indulgence. Presbyterian for some time before 1697