BLACKBURN HUNDRED 



WHALLEY 



century, for to that period the greater part of 

 the present building belongs, including the chancel, 

 nave with the south aisles of each, south porch and 

 west tower. Some work was probably carried out 

 in the 1 7th century, the porch, if not rebuilt, having 

 been most likely then repaired, and in the 1 8th century 

 the interior appears to have been filled with square 

 pews and to have assumed more or less the appearance 

 which it held till about fifty years ago. In 1733 a 

 gallery was erected at the west end, and the eastern- 

 most window of the south nave aisle was rebuilt,'^" 

 and in 1765 a flat plaster ceiling was erected. In 

 1815 the middle pier of the north arcade of the nave 

 gave way and had to be taken down and rebuilt.'" 

 This occasioned so considerable a declension of the 

 other piers that they had to be underpinned and a 

 new base of strong masonry built up from the rock 

 below."' The church was at that time pronounced 



attacked the fabric while the restoration was in 

 progress.™ In the following year, 1 8 1 6, the Banastre 

 chapel on the north side of the chancel was repaired, 

 but otherwise nothing seems to have been done to 

 the building till 1856-7, when a further and more 

 extensive restoration took place. The west gallery, 

 which contained the organ, was then taken down, 

 the flat ceiling removed, exposing the original 16th- 

 century roof, the tower arch opened out and various 

 repairs done to the tower, including the forming of 

 the ringing chamber and clock room. The nave was 

 reseated with modern seats, but the square pews were 

 allowed to remain in the chancel and chancel aisles. 

 The chief work, however, consisted in the pulling 

 down and rebuilding of the north aisle of the nave, 

 which was increased in width from 13 ft. to 25 ft. 

 and covered with a high gabled roof. This new 

 aisle, which was in a very plain Gothic style with 



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 m H'-^Century % 



Ea Modern 



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Plan of Colne Church 



Scale of Beef 



to be insecure and unsightly, and its demolition and four tall two-light pointed windows in the north 

 the erection of a new building were demanded by a wall, was in its turn pulled down in 1889, together 

 strong party among the parishioners, who actually with that on the north side of the chancel, and the 



"" There was formerly an external in- 

 scription in which this was recorded : 

 ' This window rebuilt A.D. 1 7 3 3. Richd. 

 Boys, Jo. Harison, Will. Hanson, Will. 

 Sagar, Jo. Spencer, Rich. Varley, Rob. 

 Dixon, Thos. Midgley, churchwardens ; 

 John Thornton, sidesman.' This inscrip- 

 tion was removed in 1862 when the 

 window was again rebuilt and the roof 

 raised. 



■" Whitaker, PF/ialley (ed. 3, 1 8 1 8), 392, 

 where a detailed account of the method 

 of restoration is given. 



''^ ' First, the pier whose failure had 

 occasioned all the mischief having been 

 removed, the basis appeared to have been 

 undermined (through interments) and 



cut away from time to time. A new and 

 ample basis of strong masonry was then 

 laid upon the rock and the original pillar 

 replaced with great care and exactness. 

 All this was easy, but the restoration of 

 the two other pillars, which had but 

 partly declined, was a much more 

 hazardous undertaking. The architect, 

 however, by sharing the risk of being 

 crushed to death with the workmen, 

 prevailed upon them to make narrow 

 perforations under the basis from north 

 to south, through which he introduced 

 strong bars of iron. He then placed 

 large beams of wood along the surface 

 from east to west on each side of the 

 pillars, and when the bars had been 



531 



passed through the apertures strapped 

 them over the beams and bound them 

 immovably together. By this method 

 the pillars, arches and walls were 

 actually suspended. He next proceeded 

 to withdraw the dcTSlyed bases, and the 

 whole structure above was left visibly 

 hanging in the air, in which state it 

 remained till new and massive bases were 

 constructed underneath, which, by strong 

 underpinning, restored the inclined pillars 

 to the perpendicular' ; Whitaker, op. cit. 

 The architect was a Mr. Turner of 

 Leeds. 



188 It .^gg necessary afterwards to place 

 a guard in the vestry every night till the 

 restoration was completed. 



