About Thomas Hazlehurst (chapel builder)
Thomas Hazlehurst was known nationally as "the Chapel Builder" and more locally as "the Prince of Methodism" or "the Prince of the Wesleyans". He was given these titles because of his generosity in paying wholly or largely for the building of some 12 chapels and three schools in the area of Runcorn, Widnes and the villages in north Cheshire. His father, also called Thomas, had founded a profitable soap and alkali manufacturing business, Hazlehurst & Sons, in Runcorn in 1816. In 1851 Thomas' first wife Eliza died from tuberculosis on her 28th birthday leaving a fortune which was said to be of the order of £60,000. Between the years 1859 to 1875, when the partners in the business were the two youngest brothers Thomas and Charles, each took home around £6,000 each year. Thomas' first known gift of a complete chapel was in 1848 in Farnworth, then a village north of what is now the town of Widnes.
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