BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



of windows, the lower having square and the upper 

 plain, segmental heads. The general appearance of 

 the exterior is one of flatness, the aisle walls being 

 unrelieved by string course or mouldings to the 

 windows, and all the detail is poor and in the pseudo- 

 Gothic style of the time. The aisles have lean-to 

 roofs and wide embattled parapets. The raising of 

 the nave roof by the addition of the clearstory has 

 greatly improved the appearance of the building and 

 corrected the proportion of the tower, which had 

 suffered in the raising. The nave and chancel have 

 both embattled parapets and gables, with crocketed 

 pinnacles at the angles and terminal apex crosses. 

 The roofs are covered with green slates. 



The chancel is 42 ft. long by 20 ft. 6 in. wide, 

 and before its extension in 1873 was open on each 

 side to the Towneley and Stansfield chapels its full 

 length. The extension consisted of an addition of 

 about 1 8 ft., and there is now that length of straight 

 wall at either side of the east end. The upper part 

 of the south side over the vestry is open to the organ 

 chamber. The east window is of five lights with 

 tracery in the style of the 1 5 th century, and the 

 two chapels are separated from the quire by an 

 arcade of two arches of two chamfered orders spring- 

 ing from octagonal piers with moulded capitals, the 

 lower part of the openings being filled in with 

 modern iron screens. 



The Towneley and Stansfield chapels occupy the 

 east ends of the rebuilt aisles on each side of the 

 chancel. The Towneley chapel in the north side is 

 25 ft. long by 17 ft. wide and the floor is raised 

 one step above that of the aisle, the distinction at 

 the west end being otherwise unmarked. At the 

 east end the chapel is lit by a new four-light window 

 with 15th-century tracery, and on the north side by 

 four windows, two below and two above, similar to 

 those in the aisles. The Stansfield chapel is 24 ft. 

 long by 19 ft. 6 in. wide and has a door at the east 

 end opening into the modern vestry, above which 

 the organ is open to the aisle. On the south side it 

 is lit by two windows one above the other similar to 

 those in the aisles, to the west of which is a door 

 now built up, over which on the outside is a 

 sundial made by Whyman of Gawthorpe in 1791. 

 The floor is raised like that of the Towneley chapel 

 one step above the nave aisle, to which it is similarly 

 open at the west end. 



The nave is 70 ft. long by 20 ft. 6 in. wide, and 

 has an arcade of five pointed arches of two cham- 

 fered orders springing from lofty octagonal piers with 

 moulded capitals. The clearstory consists of five 

 square-headed four-light windows on each side, and 

 the roof, which is flat, is divided into five bays corre- 

 sponding to the arcade, with moulded oak principals 

 carried down the wall on to carved stone corbels. 

 The bays have a mpulded intermediate piece and 

 are panelled and boarded, and the roof, which dates 

 from 1854, is said to preserve the original character 

 of the old panelled one, the line of which shows at 

 the west end against the tower. All the interior 

 walls are faced with rough stone. 



The north aisle is 1 7 ft. 6 in. wide and that on 



the south 19 ft. 6 in., both being lit by two tiers of 

 windows of four lights, five on the north side and 

 four on the south, the south aisle having also two 

 similar windows one above the other at the west 

 end. On the north side of the tower at the west 

 end of the north aisle is the old vestry, the outside 

 wall of which is a continuation of that of the aisle, 

 externally reproducing all its features. There was 

 originally when built at the beginning of the last 

 century a second vestry above, but this is now thrown 

 into the gallery, which is approached by steps from 

 the vestry below. The north gallery is the only one 

 now remaining. Opposite the second bay from the 

 west in both north and south aisles there is a door, 

 that on the south being protected by the modern 

 porch. 



The tower is 1 3 ft. square inside with a vice in 

 the south-east corner entered from the outside. It 

 has a moulded plinth and square buttresses of four 

 stages stopping below the ancient belfry windows, 

 and the west door has a pointed arch with hood 

 mould and continuous hollow chamfered jambs and 

 head. Above is a traceried window of three cinque- 

 foiled lights with hood mould and square jambs 

 and a hollow moulded head dying out at the spring- 

 ing. The north and south sides are plain to the 

 old belfry stage except for a small square-headed 

 window high up in the wall. The original belfry 

 windows, which now light the ringing chamber, are 

 pointed and of two trefoiled lights with tracery over 

 and external hood mould, and above this the extent 

 of the old tower is marked by a string course. The 

 modern top portion has a wide single-light louvred 

 belfry window on each side and a clock facing east 

 and west. It finishes with an embatded parapet and 

 angle and intermediate pinnacles, below which is a 

 blocked string course or cornice, the whole being 

 poor in detail. On the south side, high up on the 

 face of the vice, is a shield charged with a cheveron 

 between what appear to be two horse-shoes, hammers 

 and pincers, and on an adjoining stone is the rude 

 representation of a pig."" The tower arch is open 

 to the church and consists of two chamfered orders, 

 the outer one dying into the wall at the springing, 

 the inner one continuous to the ground. 



The font stands under the tower "^ and is of 1 6th- 

 century date and octagonal in shape, two of its sides 

 bearing the Towneley arms, the others being either 

 plain or carved with shields and other emblems.ii^ 



The pulpit is of oak, dating from 1903, and all the 

 other fittings are modern."' In the Stansfield chapel, 

 however, is preserved an ancient gravestone carved 

 with a cross fleury in a circle and sword in bold 

 relief, which is probably of 14th-century date,"* and 

 in the east wall of the Towneley chapel are three old 

 stones carved with shields bearing different impale- 

 ments of the Towneley family, one having also the 

 initials E. T. The chapel contains mural monu- 

 ments to Richard Towneley, who died in 1 706, with 

 a long Latin inscription, the first part of which was 

 written by himself, and to Charles Towneley, the 

 antiquary, who died in 1805. There are also two 

 modern altar tombs to members of the Towneley 



**^ An ancient tradition, as at Winwick, 

 connects a pig witli the erection of the 

 first church. See note 123. 



I'l The baptistery was formed there in 

 1903. 



^^^ These have been variously inter- 

 preted. See Wilkinson, ■ op. cit. 4 ; 

 Whitaker's Whalley (ed. 4, 1876), ii, 

 159, where there is a full description 

 with illustration. 



449 



"^ Some 17th-century bench ends were 

 removed in 1903. 



1" Dr. Whitaker supposed it to have 

 covered the remains of one of the earlier 

 St&48fields, 



57 



