BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



BLACKBURN 



desk were between the windows on the north side. 

 When the pews were removed and modern benches 

 inserted the old carved ends, many of which are 

 inscribed with the initials of the owners and with 

 various dates from 1688 to 1692, were retained. 

 The east end is now raised two steps and rearranged 

 as a sanctuary. 



The east window is modern, of three cinquefoiled 

 lights with tracery under a four-centred head, and 

 there are two square-headed traceried windows on 

 each side of the building towards its eastern end of 

 three cinquefoiled lights."" These windows have 

 elaborately moulded jambs and heads both inside and 

 out, and internally equally elaborately moulded sills, 

 all of which have the appearance of having been 

 formerly put to other uses. The mouldings of the 

 heads and sills do not mitre with those of the jambs, 

 though the sills are all in one piece, the whole having 

 rather a clumsy appearance. The west window is 

 the old one of four lights reinserted in the rebuilt 

 wall. 



A piscina remains in the south wall and has a 

 pointed trefoiled head with label over, quatrefoil 



ip } o 



10 



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yp 



Scale of Feet 



1 16 - Cenhjry 



Plan of St. Leonard's, LXngho 



bowl, hollow chamfered jambs and projecting moulded 

 sill. Immediately opposite on the north wall is an 

 elaborately carved stoup, a little more than half an 

 octagon in plan, projecting 14 in. from the wall and 

 3 ft. in height from the floor to the top. The bowl 

 is 9 in. in diameter, and the corbel below is enriched 

 with carved trail foliage and circular and four-leafed 

 flowers. The stoup, as well as the piscina, is probably 

 a fragment from Whalley. The font is at the west 

 end and is modern, and there is now no pulpit. 



The porch has a stone seat on each side with an 

 outer opening under a flat four-centred arched head 

 cut out of one stone. The inner doorway has a seg- 



mental arch with moulded jambs and head. In the 

 west jamb of the outer opening is a large stone carved 

 on three faces with shields and quatrefoils within a 

 circle, only one of the shields, however, which has a lion 

 rampant, being now decipherable. Inside the porch 

 is a small carved stone on the west side and two other 

 Gothic fragments on the east wall. 



The other carved stones on the outside of the 

 building comprise the fragments of a 15th-century 

 carved canopy to a niche over the east window, and 

 on either side of the window itself two carved heads, 

 apparently stops to a hood mould. On the south 

 side, between the porch and window, is a stone 18 in. 

 high by I 3 in. wide with shield and traceried carving 

 above, and another boldly projecting shield which 

 has been the termination of a hood mould. Both 

 these shields are obliterated, and there is another 

 indecipherable one built into the west wall. 



The interior is faced with rough stone and the 

 floor is tiled. The roof is divided into five bays by 

 four oalc principals, and is plastered between the spars. 

 Some fragments of old coloured glass have been col- 

 lected in the top lights of the two easternmost windows 

 north and south of the sanctuary, but the rest of the 

 glass is modern. 



Externally there is a moulded plinth on the south 

 side only between the porch and the east end, and 

 the east wall has three square 2-in. sets off 3 ft. 10 in. 

 in height, the lower one of which is carried round 

 on the north side for a distance of 9 ft. At the west 

 end is a moulded string-course under the window 

 stopped by a bloclc at the north end and cut off at 

 the south, but the rest of the walls all round are 

 quite plain. A cross was placed on the eastern gable 

 in the restoration of 1879. 



The turret contains one bell, inscribed ' T. Elleray, 

 curate, 1756.' 



The churchyard lies principally on the south and 

 east sides, the approach being direct from the green 

 opposite the porch. 



The first direct reference to the 

 JDFOWSON chapel of Langho is in the will of 

 John Braddyll, 1 578 ; by it 10/. a 

 year was to be paid to the repair of the chapel during 

 his lease of the tithe corn of Brockhall, ' if the said 

 chapel so long do continue and have divine service in 

 the same.' "' As there was no endowment there does 

 not appear to have been any regular service main- 

 tained ™ until the Commonwealth time, when in 

 1646 it was ordered that £50 a year should be paid 

 out of the rectory of Deane, sequestered from 

 Mr. Anderton, recusant."" Mr. James Chrichlowe was 

 the minister in 1650, but there is nothing to show 

 how long he stayed."' It 1658 it was proposed to 

 make a separate parish for the chapelry,'" but nothing 

 seems to have been done. On the Restoration the 

 old arrangements would return, and in 1684 it was 

 recorded : ' No curate because no maintenance,' but 

 some subscriptions had been promised."' 



'<" The tracery has been renewed in 

 the two north windows. 



i»8 Cited by Abram, Blackburn, 4.47-55. 

 From a document of 1684 it appears that 

 ^ic was given in lieu of the annual 

 1 01. 



109 i Neither reader nor stipend ' was the 

 report in 1610 ; Hist. MSS. Cam. Rep. 

 xiv, App. iv, 9. 



Abram gives the following as curates: 



Decoy, c. 1620-5 ; Johnson, c. 1630 ; 

 Richard Bullock, 1631-2 ; Woods, 1640- 

 5 ; Whitaker and Midghall later. The 

 vicar of Blackburn in 1687 stated that 

 before the Civil War there was a * con- 

 stant hired curate ' at Langho. 



'i" Plund. Mins. Accts. (Rec. Soc. I.ancs. 

 and Ches.), i, 65 j no one is named as 

 minister. 



11* Commonw. Church Surv. (Rec. Soc. 



333 



Lanes, and Ches.), i6o ; the allowance 

 was then ^^40. 



"' Plujid. Mim. Accts. ii, 241. 



"' Return made to Abp. Sancroft, 1684, 

 quoted by Abram. It was reported that 

 the people usually went to Whalley Church 

 for service and for christenings and burials ; 

 to the parish church for marriages, &c. 



Langho Chapel was furnished with a 

 pulpit, bell, communion table and seats. 



