LEYLAND HUNDRED 



CROSTON 



took place in 1866-7, when the 18th-century 

 galleries were removed, the chapels done away with,' 

 a chancel arch erected, and the north chancel aisle 

 entirely rebuilt. The east wall of the south chancel 

 aisle is also said to have been pulled down and rebuilt 

 at this time,' but, however that may be, the whole of 

 the outer walls of this aisle were afterwards taken 

 down and rebuilt in 1875. ^^ Baincs's statement 

 about the 16th-century building is correct, it may be 

 surmised that the present nave and aisles belong 

 substantially to that date, together, perhaps, \^•ith the 

 upper part of the tower.' A detached vestry and 

 parish room were built on the north side of the 

 church in 1903, connected with it by a glazed 

 passage leading from the old vestry door. 



The external walls are largely faced with red sand- 

 stone with the later additions in gritstone, and the 

 roofs are covered with stone slates, except those of the 

 new south chancel aisle, where modern blue slates are 

 used. There is no clearstory, the roof over the nave 

 and aisles being of one wide span. The chancel 



The east end of the chancel projects 1 2 ft. 6 in. 

 beyond the aisles, the angle on the north side, how- 

 ever, being occupied by a low embattled vestry, and 

 has a five-light pointed window with the mullions 

 crossing in the head, apparently of 16th-century date. 

 The smaller square-headed three-light window on 

 the south side seems to belong to the 15th-century 

 church and is now the only window in the building 

 with good original detail. The lights have cinque- 

 foiled heads with perpendicular tracery above, and the 

 jambs and head are square chamfered, the mullions 

 having hollow chamfers, and there is no external label. 

 The e.ist gable has been rebuilt at the top in gritstone, 

 and has a plain moulded coping and apex cross. The 

 chancel is inclosed on both sides for a length of 

 15 ft. 6 in. from the east end, beyond which it is 

 open to the north and south aisles by an arcade of 

 two pointed arches. In the south wall below the 

 window is a double piscina of 1 3th-century date 

 which was discovered in 1866 on the removal of the 

 plaster from the walls.* It is in two stones under a 



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SCALE CPTEET 



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Plan of Croston Church 



roof is lower than that of the nave, with overhanging 

 eaves and a lean-to over the south aisle. The north 

 aisle, which is 6 ft. wider than the aisle of the nave, 

 is under a separate gabled roof. The nave aisles have 

 embattled parapets erected in 1823. 



square-headed opening, the top of which is imme- 

 diately below the sill of the window. The opening 

 is 2 ft. II in. wide and 1 8 in. high and has a through 

 stone at the top with a carved capital at the front, 

 but there is no central shaft or any trace of the base 



In 1710 'the body of the church up to 

 the chancel being in a very ill and dan- 

 gerous manner as to the foundations of 

 the pillars falling in by the frequent bury- 

 ing in the body of the church and by 

 floods piercing the earth and filling up 

 the graves, it was concluded and agreed 

 upon that new earth should this year be 

 brought in and the flags new laid upon 

 the new earth and rightly levelled to a 

 due and suitable height.' 



171 5. 'The arch that goeth into the 

 channcel called Becconsall channcel ' was 

 taken down and rebuilt at the cost of the 

 parish, and the ' adjoining arches ' were 

 also taken down and rebuilt by the rector. 



1768. It was unanimously agreed that 

 the two small pillars next the steeple 

 be wholly taken down and rebuilt and 



the two large pillars of the steeple be 

 properly underpinned. 



In 1 770 at a meeting of the parishioners 

 it was resolved that 'the whole of the 

 expense of all the pillars lately taken down 

 and rebuilt be defrayed out of the money 

 collected by Brief and that the sum of 

 jf 106 121. 5J(/. be allowed out of the 

 Brief money to defray the expense in- 

 curred.' This seems to indicate that the 

 rebuilding of the nave arcade extended 

 into the year 1769. Baines (La««. 

 [1836], iii, 398) states that part of the 

 nave was rebuilt in 1767, but this is pro- 

 bably an error for 1768-9. 



1 The chapels north and south of the 

 chancel were described as being ' merely 

 canopied pews' ; Baines, op. cit. (ed. 

 1836), iii, 398. 



83 



^ Canon Atkinson's notes to Glynne's 

 Churches of Lanes. 69 (Chet. See. Publ. 

 new ser. xxvii), where it is stated that 

 the east wall was pulled down *8o as 

 no longer to extend beyond the east wall 

 of the chancel itself.' But this seems to 

 be a mistake. 



3 Possibly the whole of the tower was 

 at this time rebuilt, the only evidence of 

 older work being in the jambs and heads 

 of the west door and window, but these 

 may have been used up in the later re- 

 building from the older work, 



^ ' On removing the plaster from the 

 walls of the chancel in the parish church 

 of Croston a small niche on the south 

 side was laid bare. In it are two stoups, 

 or small stone basins, which had evidently 

 been separated in front by a thin orna- 



