The first New Road chapel was built in 1792 on the present site (Rochdale New Road and the first pastor, Samuel Laycock was appointed the following year. The congregation may have formed by a split from Bank Street Unitarian Church (archives ref. CBS), or from the parish church, and reputedly met from about 1790 in houses at Tenters and Moorside under the influence of William Roby, later pastor at Cannon Street Congregational Church in Manchester. A graveyard adjacent to the church seems to have been in use between 1797 and 1814 with a few later burials up to 1834; this was partly built over when the old church was demolished and the present building erected on the site in 1885, and a plan of unknown provenance (ref. PMX) exists showing the sites of the old graves, in addition to CNR/14/5 below. In addition to the sunday school, there was an infant day school between 1835 and 1882, but apparently no records of this survive. Members of the New Road congregation split off to form new churches at Bethel (1806) and Castlecroft (1838) as well as helping to revive the then moribund church at Park, Walmersley (1840); in addition, New Road collaborated with these churches in establishing missions in the town centre and at Freetown (for records of these churches see refs. CBL, CCA CFM and CPA). Between 1944 and 1948, New Road shared a pastor with Castlecroft, and there were various earlier proposals for a union of congregational churches in the town; in 1965, it was decided Bethel, Castlecroft and New Road would amalgamate to form a new Bury Congregational Church on the New Road site. In 1972 this became part of the new United Reformed Church, and records for the amalgamated church have for convenience been included here with those for New Road. The records also include some papers for the Bury and District Free Church Federal Council 1954-1964, the secretary for which was a church member. (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk)