1716 to 1761
Henry Richardson 1716-1735
For the first seven years of his ministry baptisms and marriages were entered in the registers of Stockport and Prestbury. After 1723 a register common to both chapels was used; this became known as the Poynton register because the Warren family had the custody of it.
William Thompson 1735-1761
Mr Thompson was formerly a curate at Prestbury. When he came to Norbury he obtained a £400 grant from the Queen Ann's Bounty, (5) with which he purchased land on Patch Farm Bramhall. This is now a housing estate on the Bramhall-Woodford Road. It increased his income by £19 per annum.
One of the main events held at the chapel at this time, apart from the Easter and Whitsuntide festivities, was the annual Rush Gathering Festival. This was held at the time of the old Norbury wakes on the first Monday after the 6th of August.
An account of this in the 1760s tells how a flat cart drawn by two horses was piled high with rushes, while around the side, made up with flowers, was the legend "God Bless Peter Legh". In charge of the rush cart were the Norbury morris men. They, with a crowd of adults and children dressed as Biblical and folk lore characters, assembled on Fidlers Green opposite to the Red Lion.
After parading around the green, they wended their way to the chapel. Here the rushes were strewn on the seats and floor, while the walls were decorated with the flowers. This was followed by a thanksgiving service, after which the morris men and other characters danced, performed their plays and formed tableaux in the chapel yard.
In 1759 a charity school was built at what is now the junction of Argyle and Grundy Streets. Mr Legh of Lyme clothed and educated six deserving children from Norbury for a year, whilst a Mr Howerd did the same for six children from Bosden.
Thirty years later the Charity had ceased to exist because of local prejudice. We are told that the charity children had been harshly treated by the villagers and the blue smocks provided by the ladies of Lyme marked them out as objects of ridicule. However, while the scholars attended, the Norbury curate was responsible for their spiritual welfare.
(5) Queen Ann's Bounty: The name given to an Act of Parliament in 1704. Queen Ann requested that the tithe money she received as "head of the church" should be used to augment the incomes of the impoverished clergy.
