ECCLESIASTICAL 

 HISTORY 



I— TO THE REFORMATION 



THE ecclesiastical condition of the territory now included in 

 Lancashire, during the period between the departure of the 

 Romans and its conquest by Northumbria, is as obscure as its 

 political organization.^ That it was already to some extent 

 Christianized seems a reasonable inference from the establishment of a British 

 missionary centre by Ninian at Whithern, in Galloway, beyond the bounds of 

 the province, towards the close of the Roman occupation.** There is a possible 

 trace of Irish influence at a later date, in the primitive little chapel at 

 Heysham, near Morecambe, which is dedicated to St. Patrick. This is a 

 plain rectangular oratory without a chancel, a form which may still be seen 

 in early Irish cells, but of which there is no other instance going back beyond 

 the Norman Conquest in any other English county save Cornwall, whose 

 examples are undoubtedly Celtic* The site of the chapel, too, on a promon- 

 tory (overlooking Morecambe Bay) is one which was very commonly chosen 

 for Irish religious settlements. The actual fabric of the chapel is perhaps 

 Saxon, but it may have replaced an earlier building. A similar oratory may 

 possibly have been connected with that cemetery at Kilgrimol, which is only 

 mentioned as a boundary mark in the foundation charter of Lytham Priory.* 

 This chapel, too, was close to the sea, which now covers its site.' 



In what, if any, diocese or dioceses the future Lancashire lay during this 

 period, there is nothing to show. It has indeed been assumed that the diocese 

 of Glasgow, established by St. Kentigern at the end of the sixth century, 

 extended as far south as the Mersey,* But this rests upon the further 

 assumption that Kentigern's patron. King Rhydderch of Alclud (Dumbarton), 

 ruled over the whole district lying between Clyde and Mersey and bounded 

 on the east by the hills that form the watershed ; a hypothesis which is 



' See article on 'Political History.' ' Vita Sti. Niniani (Historians of Scotland), v, 1 1. 



' Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, i, 311 ; ii, 30, 100-103, 279 ; Trans. Lanes, and Ches. 

 Antlq. Soc. v, 4. The chapel has the Irish feature of great length in proportion to its width. Internally it is 

 27 ft. long, while its width varies from nearly 9 ft. to less than 8 ft. Brown gives a plan, and figures the south 

 doorway. 



* Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 346, 348. 



' Local tradition regards this lost chapel as the original church of Lytham {Trans. Lanes, and Ches. Hist. 

 Soc. (New Ser.), xiii, 95). 



' Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, ii, 4. 



2 I I 



