A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



alleged ai.-iitance to the movement has been told 

 elsewhere.' 



The changes brought about by the destruction of 

 Whalley Abbey and the Reformation are illustrated in 

 the detailed accounts of the townships given below. 

 Owing largely to the absence of feudal influences, 

 the district appears to have become Puritan and in 

 the Civil War sided against the king, the Nowells of 

 Read forming the noteworthy exception. The Presby- 

 terian Classis in 164.6 was formed for the whole 

 hundred, but half of the ministers and most of the lay 

 members belonged to Whalley parish. After the 

 Restoration Nonconformity appears, Independents, 

 Baptists and Quakers being known, and in parts 

 influential. The Revolution and the Jacobite insur- 

 rections do not seem to have caused any stir in the 

 parish, but a great change has been wrought by the 

 introduction of the cotton manufacture in the middle 

 of the 18th century. One of the chief agents in its 

 success was the inventor James Hargreaves, a native of 

 Oswaldtwiftle. A great part of the district is now 

 occupied with the trade ; Burnley and Accrington 

 have become large towns, while entirely new towns 

 have been created in Rawtcnstall and Nelson. 



The church of S7'. MAR}'' stands on 



CHURCH the «cst side of the town, a short dis- 



taiue to the north-cast of the abbey ruins, 



and consists of a chancel with north vcftr), nave with 



north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower. 



Although a church probably stood on the present 

 site in Saxon times and was followed by a later i zth- 

 century building, evidences of which arc found in 

 various fragments still preserved and in the doorway 

 of the south aisle, the history of the present building 

 begins in the 13th century, to which period the 

 greater part of it still belongs. The south dounvay, 

 belonging to the older building, is not in its original 

 position, the jambs and arch may possibly not belong 

 to each other ; but it conclusively shows that the 

 12th-century church was a stone building of some 

 importance. This is in accordance with the tr.idi- 

 tion that the old name of the place was ' White 

 Church under Lea,' a 'white church' being one 

 of stone. The whole, however, was rebuilt during 

 the 13th century. The 12th-century church most 

 likely consisted of a chancel and aislcless nave, and 

 the new chancel would be built round the old 

 one in the usual manner, after which the rebuilding 

 of the nave would be proceeded with, an aisle being 

 added first on one side and then on the other. There 

 is enough difference of detail between the two 

 arcades to show that one was done before the other, 

 and probably that on the north side, which has 

 circular piers, was built first, but of this there is no 

 definite evidence. The building then assumed 

 more or less of its present aspect with chancel and 

 small north vestry, nave and aisles, and probably a 



clc.irstory. The bells would in all likelihood L; 

 hung in a turret over the west gable and there would 

 probably be a large west window. The church as 

 then completed seems to have stood without altera- 

 tion till the latter half of the 1 5th century, when the 

 triple lancet east window of the chancel was done 

 away with and a new traceried window better suited 

 to the display of painted glass was substituted. The 

 aisles were at the same time transformed by the in- 

 sertion of new windows all round, the roofs probably 

 renewed and perhaps the walls raised, but there is no 

 evidence in the masonry that the walls were entirely 

 rebuilt, the character of the rubble walling rendering 

 d positive pronouncement difficult. In any rebuild- 

 ing, however, the old stones would doubtless be 

 used again. The ground plan of the church there- 

 fore remained unchanged except at the west end, 

 where a tower w.is added and the building assumed 

 externally its present aspect. When the tower was 

 built a new roof appears to have been put over the 

 nave and the clearstory altered as the aisles had been. 

 That the clearstory is not altogether an addition of 

 the 15th century there seems to be proof in the 

 mark of an earlier roof above the present one on 

 the east face of the tower. The existing clearstory 

 windows and the nave roof were evidently part of 

 one work, and the roof has ruled the spacing of the 

 windows, not the windows the setting out of the 

 roof, and both of them are so nearly of the same 

 date as the tower that it is impossible to suppose any 

 earlier roof can have been put there after the tower 

 was built unless it had chanced to be destroyed by 

 fire as soon as it was built, of which there must have 

 been some evidence.' The probability is that when 

 the tower was built the 13th-century clearstory and 

 roof still stood over the nave and the junction be- 

 tween them was made good in the usual way. After 

 that it was determined to have a new roof and to 

 alter the clearstory, the reason being that the early 

 windows would be small — perhaps only round holes 

 — and larger ones would be required for the sake 

 of light after the building of the tower had taken 

 away the direct light which formerly came from the 

 west window. It is possible however that the clear- 

 story may have been wholly rebuilt, though an 

 examination of the walls would probably bring to 

 light evidence of work older than the 15 th century. 



The church is therefore still in substance and 

 plan that which was built in the 13th century with 

 some alterations and the addition of a west tower 

 made in early Tudor times. Since then the vestry 

 has been enlarged, probably about the end of the 

 1 8th or beginning of the last century, and a south 

 porch added in 1 844, when a general internal refitting 

 of the building took place. The chancel was restored 

 in 1866, and in 1868 the old timber roof was laid 

 open and repaired.' A great deal of alteration had 



• r.C.H. Land, ii, 138. 



' See lyhalley C hurch and Abbey, by the 

 Rev. S. T. Taylor-Taswcll, M.A. 1 905 ; 

 also reports oa the fabric by Mr. J. T. 

 Micklcthwaite, F.S.A. (1891) and Mr. 

 E. S. Prior, F.S..\. (1907). These have 

 been used in the following description. 

 A copy of Mr. Miclclethwaite's report 

 was kindly lent by the vicar, the Rev. 

 R. Newman, M.A. Mr. Prior, whose 

 rf-port has been printed, superintended the 

 restoration of the church in 1 909. 



The church is called St. Mary*8 in 

 Domesday Book but in the Status de 

 Blackburnshire All Saints*, a title which 

 continued in use till recently. Early in 

 the 13th century Gilbert son of William 

 de Fetherstan gave to God and All Saints 

 and the church of Whalley land In Down- 

 ham, Geoffrey, Dean of Whalley, being 

 a witness. Somewhat later Richard de 

 Whalley released to God and B. Mary 

 ind the church of All Saints of Whalley 

 his right in lands which Peter de Chester 



had recovered by a suit at Westminster ; 

 IVhMey Couch. (Chet. Soc), i, 317-18. 



It may be noted that the abbey church 

 is called St. Benedict's in 1336; Final 

 Cone, (Rcc. Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), 11, 

 too. 



For the curfew bell see N. and Q. 

 (ser. 4), vi, 525. 



' J. T. Micklcthwaite (Report 1891), 

 whose conclusions are here followed. 



^ Canon Atkinson's notes to Glynne's 

 Churckei of Lanes. (Chet. Soc.), 78. 



