Papers Relating to the Proposal to Rebuild Trinity Chapel

The original building of Trinity Chapel was completed 16 May 1635. J.J. Barber states that the church structure weakened over the years due to "burials in the marshy ground of the churchyard", and the vibrations caused by six large bells which were hung in 1748. In 1749 the church was rebuilt. In 1861 the Rev Edward Allen, then incumbent, made an application to the Charity Commission to rebuild the church once again, claiming that the cost should be borne entirely by the Booth Charity. However, the Charity Trustees, the "people of Salford" and Salford Corporation stood in opposition to this proposal.

Reconstruction of the original order was problematic due to the disorganisation the documents had suffered when deposited in Chetham's Library in 1969-1970. The documents appear to have been placed in boxes primarily according to their size and shape, and not according to any logical archival organisation.

After an examination of the documents it was decided that their original order would be best reflected by arranging them chronologically. Although the letters and correspondence have been placed into a sub-series, no system of arbitrary arrangement has been imposed on the other papers. This would only have served to obfuscate the internal controversies and methodical legal processes which led to the conclusion of this period in the chapel's history. It was decided that these documents would be best represented in a composite series. This composite series contains various material such as a number of ms notes, copies of deeds, accounts, Parliamentary Acts, various legal documents, including a large number of affidavits, and other documents.

Unless otherwise stated, the documents are written on paper