A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



baptistery. Though the original tower was retained 

 in 1873 not very much ancient detail has been left, 

 the west door and window above being new, and the 

 old diagonal buttresses having been replaced by square 

 ones of four stages, finishing with detached pinnacles 

 at the new belfry stage. The clock, which was a 

 conspicuous feature of the old tower, was removed, but 

 the old two-light pointed belfry windows still remain 

 on each face of the tower, those on the south and 

 west sides being slightly out of the centre, occasioned 

 no doubt by the space occupied by the vice in the 

 south-west angle. On the south side, to the west of 

 the 14th-century window, is an old sculptured stone 

 built into the wall. The old tower finished above 

 these windows with an embattled parapet and angle 

 pinnacles, but was raised by a new belfry stage with 

 two lofty stone louvred windows of three lights on 

 each face. Above this it finishes with a new em- 

 battled parapet and angle pinnacles, and has a good 

 1 8th-century weather vane. 



The screen at the east end of the north aisle and 

 that at the north end of the Trinity Chapel are old, 

 and perhaps belong to the restoration of 1558, with 

 a series of coats of arms on the bottom panels. There 

 are new oak screens at the west end of each aisle in- 

 closing the vestries. 



Some old fronts and bench-ends are worked into 

 the chancel seats, and bear a number of heraldic 

 shields in their panels. The arms are : a cross mo- 

 line ; a bend wavy ; France and England quartered ; 

 on a chief three roundels ; eight martlets impaling a 

 griffin, a cross moline, or a shackbolt ; a fleur de lis 

 with a chief ermine ; the quartered coat of Byron and 

 Colwycke ; four fusils in a border engrailed, and in 

 chief two bars, impaling a cross moline. 



The screen at the east end of the north aisle bears 

 the cross moline and shackbolt, and an inscription : 

 * In te Domine speravi . Deus Deus meus . In Domino 

 confido.' 



The screen at the east end of the south aisle has 

 carved panels on its east side as well as the west, with 

 an inscription : ' Miserere mei Deus . Domine exaudi 

 . inclina Domine . parce nobis Domine . Libera nos 

 Domine.' 



In the north aisle of the chancel (St. Katherine's 

 Chapel) is a plate of copper to the memory of Susanna 

 Gartside (d. 1668), with a skeleton at each side of the 

 words, ' As you are, so were we ; as wee are, so you 

 must be.' 



The font now in use, which stands under the 

 tower, was found buried in the vicarage garden in 

 1892, and consists of an octagonal sandstone bowl 

 2 ft. 8 in. in diameter at top and I ft. 10 in. in height, 

 on a new base. It is entirely without ornament and 

 of rough workmanship, and dates apparently from the 

 latter part of the I5th century. It is very much worn, 

 but the top still shows the holes for fastenings. There 

 is a modern cover. 90 



The churchyard is on the south and east sides of 

 the church, and being paved with flat headstones, has a 

 rather desolate appearance. On the north the ground 



90 See Proceedings of the Soc. of Anti- 

 quaries, xiv, 3zo (1893). 



903 The date mark is two years later 

 than the date on the inscription. 



91 Fishwick, Rochdale, 142-3. 



91a Edited by Colonel H. Fishwick, 

 1888-9. 



91b Whalley Coucher, i, 146. 



drops suddenly, the church being built almost on the 

 edge of the declivity. The churchyard contains some 

 fragments from the old 16th-century church pin- 

 nacles, gargoyles, &c. and a new stone lych-gate has 

 been erected on the south side opposite the porch. 

 Amongst the graves is that of Tim Bobbin (John 

 Collier, d. 1786) with a rhyming inscription. The 

 oldest gravestone is dated 1656. 



There is a ring of eight bells, two cast by John 

 Rudhall in 1787, and four in 1752 by Abel Rudhall. 

 The tenor, which bears the motto, ' Success to the 

 town and trade of Rochdale,' was cast in 1719, recast 

 in 1756, and again in 1812. 



The plate consists of a paten of 1698-9, inscribed 

 ' Ex dono Tho. Holden Filii Ric. Holden in usum 

 Ecclesiae Rochdaliens. 1696,' Ml with the maker's mark 

 S.H. under a crown ; a chalice presumably of 17th- 

 century date, without marks and inscription, but with 

 an engraved band under the rim ; a paten of 1702, 

 inscribed ' Ex Dono Sarae Holden Filiae Richd. Hol- 

 den in usum Ecclesiae Rochdaliensis 1702 ' ; an alms- 

 dish of 1722, 'The gift of Mrs. Sarah Chadwicke of 

 Chadwicke to the parish church of Rochdale who dyed 

 Aug. 21, 1722 ' ; two flagons of 1724, inscribed ' Ex 

 dono Alexandri Butterworth Armigeri,' and with the 

 arms and crest of Butterworth, and bearing the mark 

 of Jonah Clifton ; a tall flagon of 1772-3, inscribed 

 * The gift of Thos. Wray, D.D., vicar of this parish, 

 1773,' with the maker's mark I.C., probably that of 

 John Carter ; two chalices of 1807 with the mark of 

 William Abdy ; and a chalice of 1892, a replica of 

 the 17th-century one. 



The plate was twice stolen and recovered in the 

 1 8th century, in the years 1773 and 1779. In 1783 

 it consisted of the three present flagons, the two Hol- 

 den patens, and the Chadwicke dish, together with 

 five cups and chalices, one of which was marked on 



bottom and another In 1829 two of the 



H.B. M.H. 



old chalices were exchanged for two new ones.' 1 



The registers begin in 1582. The earlier portions, 

 1582-1641, have been published. 913 



There are no tithe maps at the church. 



A new archdeaconry of Rochdale was formed in 

 1910, the vicar being appointed. 



The relics preserved in the church about 1200 are 

 mentioned in a deed printed in the Whalley Coucher. 

 The compact nature of the parish 

 ADVQWSQN favours the supposition that its 

 church is very ancient, but there is 

 no record of it until near the end of the I zth cen- 

 tury. Then Robert de Whalley, rector of the church 

 of Rochdale, gave to Alexander de Spotland certain 

 lands which Adam de Spotland had just given to 

 St. Chad and the church of Rochdale. 9 * As it ap- 

 pears that Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley, held the church 

 in H95, 93 the grant cited may be of a somewhat 

 later date. The advowson, like the manor, was 

 held by the lord of Clitheroe, and Roger de Lacy, 

 who died in 1211, granted the church and the right 

 of presentation to the abbey of Stanlaw. This grant 



92 Ibid, iii, 727, 729. The rectors of 

 Whalley are traditionally stated to have 

 held Rochdale Church by hereditary right ; 

 ibid, i, 187. 



Though the phrase 'church of Roch- 

 dale (or Rachedham) ' was in general 

 and early use, the correct expression 

 seems to have been 'church of Castle- 



ton in Rochdale'; ibid, i, 145, 151; 

 iii, 729. 



93 Ibid, i, 137. Whitaker's explana- 

 tion must be taken into account : Robert, 

 a clerk, was son of Geoffrey, and held 

 the rectory for a time by his father's grant, 

 resigning or dying in his father's lifetime. 

 Geoffrey's father wae also a Robert. 



196 



