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Burnley Express
Saturday 3 June 1893
The Old Churches in the Burnley Rural Deanery
Interesting Paper By The Vicar If Newchurch-in-Pendle
At the monthly meeting of the clergy of the Burnley Rural Deanery, held at Christ Church Vicarage, Colne, this week, the Rev. J. H. Horrox, vicar of Newchurch-in-Pendle, read a deeply interesting paper on "The Old Churches in the Burnley Rural Deanery." The Saxons, he said, recognised in their ecclesiastical system three classes of Parishes. There was (1) "The Ealden Minstre," or "Mother Church," (2) the church having a legerstowe, or place of burial, and (3) the feld-cyric or field-kirk, the chapel without a cemetery. To one of these two latter divisions we shall attempt to refer the six churches in this rural deanery which may be classified as "The Old Churches in the Burnley Rural Deanery." Of these daughter of the old
MOTHER CHURCH OF WHALLEY,
founded 600 A.D., the most prominent, doubtless, are those of Colne and Burnley, the eldest daughters of Whalley, and formerly parochial chapelries under her. Of these Colne would seem to take the precedence in point of date, and, with Burnley, to come under the second head of the Saxon division of ecclesiastical organisations - that of a church with a legerstowe, or place of burial. This distinction was so essential to the constitution of a church that so late as 23 Henry III (i.e., A.D. 1238), in a case of quatre impedit"" the issue was "not whether it were Church or Chapel, but whether it had rights of sepulture and burial." It is, indeed, true that both Colne and Burnley are mentioned in Delaval's Charter temp. Henry I (1100 to 1154). Colne's reputed founder is Robert de Lacy, son of Ilbert, who came over with the Conqueror, and the fact that no mention is made of this Church in Domesday Book, compiled in the reign of that King, does not disprove its existence at that early period seeing it was a Chapel dependent on Whally. In the Inquisition taken at Blackburn, June 25th, 1650, before Richard Shuttleworth, Esq., by Commission under the Commonwealth held for inquiring and certifying the number and value of all parochial vocations within the parishes of Whalley, Blackburn, and Rochdale, we are informed that the Chapelry of Colne consists of that township, Foulrig, Marsden, and Trawden, and then contained 400 families. The Chapelry then claimed to be made Parochial. At this era it would appear that Burnley, Padiham, and Newchurch were the only Chapelries that were parochial, the townships of Barley-cum-Whitley and Roughlee being then added in extension of the parochial limits of the latter. There are
22 INCUMBENTS
of this Church on record, commencing with Sir John Hychen or Higgin, A.D.1500, and ending with the present (and 2nd) Rector, Rev. W. Clifford. Two old families have chapels or chiors in this Church, the Bannisters, of Park Hill, and Towneleys, of Barnside, the representation of which latter family now rests with the Claytons of Carr Hall, bear Nelson. These chapels commemorate the connection of these families with the Parish Church of Colne. The Deans of Whalley claimed the patronage of the dependent chapels, but were dependent shortly after the Conquest upon the Lords of Blackburnshire for their institution, and when upon a temporary forfeiture of the Lacies, the lordship of Blackburnshire became vested in Delaval, the latter actually granted to the Priory of Pontefract. The Church of Whalley and its appurtenances, the Castle Chapel of Clitheroe with the tithes of all the Church lands belonging to the same chapel, also the church of the Blessed Mary Magdalene, the Church of Colne, and that of Burnley. But a subsequent restoration of the Lacies prevented this alienation from taking effect; though it was contested with
TRUE MONKISH PERTINACITY
even after the foundation of the Abbey and a lapse of two centuries. The patronage of the mother church of Whalley, with its dependent chapels, was (in fulfilment of an incomplete arrangement made between Henry VIII. and Archbishop Cranmer) conveyed to the See of Canterbury in exchange for more valuable Church property by Edward VI. by indenture on June 1st, 1547 - though His Grace never exercised his right of presenting to the chapels. The first restoration of Colne Church dates from A.D. 1515 - when being much dilapidated the Archdeacon of Chester issued commission to Edmund Braddyll and Henry Towneley, gentlemen, authorising them to re-build certain parts of it, and they nearly re-built the whole. The patronage of the chapels was afterwards exercised by the Deans and Incumbents of Whalley until all, with the exception of Newchurch-in-Rossendale, then under mortgage, were sold by Dr. Whitaker in 1846 to the Hulme's trustees, who have since that date been the patrons. (b) The church was restored by Rev. J. Henderson in the years 1856-7 at a cost of £537, and recently by the present Rector, and now shines forth in an increased and lustrous beauty. There is
AN ANCIENT INSCRIPTION
formerly embedded in the east wall, which may be thus freely translated - "O Mary, moth of Christ! I earnestly entreat thee to succour and aid the world by the recital of such prayers in Heaven as gladden the heart and banish all spectral illusions in the hour of death, and that Wm. Hyrd (probably one of the chantry priests) may find favour with thee. And, O, Virgin Mother! I beseech thee to have me in thy holy keeping, lest the powers of death prevail against me." There is in the churchyard the following epitaph over the Foulridge Blacksmith's grave, containing a neat poem:-
"My sledge and hammer lie reclin'd,
My bellowe too, have lost their wind,
My fire's extinct, my forge decayed,
And in the dust my vice is laid,
My coal is spent, my iron's gone,
My nails are drove, my work is done."
On the suppression of the Chantries Colne possessed three bells and a sanctus bell, which were stated to weigh 21cwt, and to be of the value of 15 guineas, which then represented a much larger sum. In 1764 the churchwardens decided on having six new bells and additional metal to the great bell. These came from York, and cost £101. In 1780 another bell seems to have been added. Many a merry peal did they ring forth.
THEY RANG 180 YEARS AGO
when the glad news reached Colne that Dunkirk was delivered into our hands, when Carthagena, too, was taken in 1741, and four years later in honour of the victory over the Scotch rebels, also on Christmas Eve, New Year's Day, May 28th and 29th, November 5th, and All Saints' Days. The present bells are mellow and sweet in tone. They were purchased in 1814, being cast by Mears, of London, their cost being defrayed in fixed proportions by the various divisions of the Chapelry. An animated controversy arose as to whether they should be six or eight in number. Colne desired eight, while the outlying townships of Barrowford, Trawden, and Marsden, looking only at the expense, considered six ought to suffice. At the vestry the advocates of economy carried the day. But the people of Colne, discovering, much to their delight, that nothing had been said as to the weight of the bells, not to be outwitted, contrived that the metal of eight ordinary bells should be placed in the six ordered, thus in effect winning the day. The large tenor bell weighs 16 cwt. 3qrs., and has on it the name of the Rev. Jno. Dunderdale, curate, and Thos. Heaton, sidesman, and of seven wardens - Wilkinson, Garth, Ridehalgh, Barrett, Holt, Blackburn, and Heap. The Chapelry of Colne was made a new parish, under Lord Blandford's Act, in 1867 (Dec 21st) - under 1 & 2, Wm. IV., sap. 45 - and thereby freed from all payment to the mother church of Whalley of dues, fees and other emoluments, as were also Downham, Church Kirk, Haslingden and Newchurch-in-Pendle. I may here advert to
THE CROSS, SO-CALLED, OF PAULINUS,
in Godly-lane, Burnley. The upright stem is almost entire, but the arms of the cross have long since disappeared. "Enough, however, yet remains of its general form," says T. T. Wilkinson, "to indicate its Saxon workmanship, and to enable it to challenge an equal antiquity with those still remaining at Whalley and Dewsbury." That erected at the latter place contained the inscription "Paulinus pic predicavit et celebravit, A.D. 627," and the similarity of this with those erected at Whalley and Burnley may seem to commemorate the same event, the preaching of Paulinus. Whitaker thus speaks of it: "Adjoining to the town (of Burnley) and near the church is a very ancient cross, apparently of Saxon workmanship, which from its form may challenge an equal antiquity with those at Whalley, and commemorate the same event, the preaching of Paulinus. The supposition may receive some countenance from the name of a neighbouring field called Bishopleap. Of this cross, however, the tradition is that prior to the foundation of the church at Burnley religious rites were celebrated on the spot where is now stands; but that, afterwards, upon an attempt being made to erect an oratory upon the place, the materials were nightly transported, by invisible agents, to the present site. The story is not uncommon, and, abating for the preternatural part, may probably be connected with something of historical truth." The parochial Church of St. Peter, Burnley, was one of the three chapels existing in the parish of Whalley at the date of Delaval's Charter, about A.D. 1136-1148. Of the original structure nothing now remains, as the choir with the roof and east window can scarcely be referred to an earlier date than the time of Edward III. Of the rest of the church the date is exactly ascertainable as A.D. 1532-33, for Thos. Sellers and Nicholas Craven (probably masons) then engaged, with three of the Towneleys, a Haydock, a Habergham, a Shuttleworth, a Parker, a Whitaker, and a Barcroft, to rebuild the south aisle of the church for a sum of £60. The portions actually rebuilt were the north and middle aisles - the south remained in it orignal state, the south remained in its original state, low and narrow, till 1789, when a faculty was granted to pull down and re-edify the said aisle and to erect a gallery over it at an expense of more than £1,000. In 1872-3 the chancel was enlarged, by public subscription, as
A MEMORIAL TO GENERAL SCARLET
The font is octagonal, seven of the sides having carved panels (1) two shields, one charged with five escallop shells, the other (being probably arms of some rich blacksmith who was a benefactor to the church) with a horse shoe inverted between two hammers in chief and a pair of pincers in base; (2) on a shield the arms of Townley of Royle; (3) a grotesque figure of a face between two legs; (4) illegible; (5) arms of Towneley of Towneley; (6) a goat passant for Stansfield; and (7) a platter and hand holding a pitcher. Mr. T. T. Wilkinson (v. Whitaker) represents them, however, as the badges of Pilkington, Gateford, Barnacke, and Eugame branches of the Towneley family. At the eastern extremity of the south aisle is the Stansfield church or chapel, the property of the Haydocks, of Hesandforth, as representatives of the Stansfield, Lords of Worsthorne. At the east end of the north aisle is the Towneley choir, or chapel of the Virgin Mary. A chantry of much older date - 1372-3 - was founded at the same altar by Thomas de la Legh subject to the condition of finding a chaplain to chant for the souls of the said Thomas, and Gilbert and Alice (his parents) and their respective ancesters. In the Church
BEFORE THE REFORMATION
there were four chantries - (1) The Rood Altar, (2) the High Altar, dedicated to St. Peter, officiating priests being the incumbents; (3) the Altar of St. Mary, already mentioned, in the Towneley Choir; (4) the Altar of St. Anthony, belonging either to Ightenhill Park or Gawthorpe. These were respectively served at the Dissolution by Stephen Smyth and Richard Itchon. The chaplains of Burnley begin with Henricus. Clericus de Brunlay A.D. 1200, and end with the Rev. Canon Parker, appointed 1855, and are 23 in number. The first eight names are from charters, the ninth from inscription on cross, the rest from registers. The tall and shapely cross, with a crucifix in relief cut upon it, which once existed in the churchyard, was brutally destroyed by a drunken rabble paid for the purpose not long ago. Around the octagonal base, which happened to escape the desecration of these puritanical lunatics and has since been removed to Towneley, was the following inscription: "Orate pro anima" Johannis Foldys, capellani qui istam crucem fieri fecit A.D. 150." This benefactor is supposed to have been a member of the Foldyses, of Danes or Danser House (i.e.The Dean's House,") an old and respectable family in the vicinity.
THE CHAPELRY OF PADIHAM
or the habitation of Paddi, is dedicated to St. Leonard, and the following memorandum extracted from the Towneley M.SS. will very nearly ascertain its real date:- "Whereas King Henry VI. did grant unto one Mr. John Marshall a license dated February 7th, an regni xxx (i.e. 1451-2.) to purchase certain lands for the use of a Chantry Priest at the church or chapel of Padiham, which said license of late time was in custody of Sir Jno. Towneley, Knight, the said Sir Jno. Towneley hath put the said license in the sure custody of the Abbot and Convent of Whalley for ever." This benefactor was a person of considerable property in the place, which his descendants enjoyed nearly a century after. There have been 28 incumbents of this church beginning with the Rev. Oliver Hall, in 1455, to the Rev. Jas. Tyas in 1886. The church was probably built and made parochial in the time of Henry VIII., when, from the appearance of Abbot Paslew's arms upon the font and in the east window, it was probably rebuilt and obtained the rights of sepulture and baptism, ranking among the second class of churches, those having a legerstowe or places of burial, having been before a field-cyric or field-kirk without a cemetery.
MARSHALL'S CHANTRY
was probably a very humble edifice, and the church lately standing, appeared too good for the year 1440. The body of the church having become ruinous was rebuilt in 1766, a brief having been granted in 1763 which produced £1,029. The old church has now being entirely replaced by one entirely new, partly on the old site but extending beyond it on the South. The style has been that od the former structure - the early perpendicular - and it has a lofty tower furnished with eight belfry windows, and terminating in a panneled battlement with eight pinnacles. The edifice was erected from the designs of Mr. W. Waddington, at a cost of about £8,000. The foundation stone was laid by the patron, Colonel Starkie, June 28th, 1866, and the church opened on January, 28, 1869. It is decorated with several windows of stained glass, and there is a beautiful alto-relieve by Gibson on the monument to the memory of Le Gendre Starkie, Esqre, of Huntroyde, who died Feb. 28, 1822, in the 32nd year of his age. The six bells of the old church have been re-hung, and a new clock with chimes has been added - the gift of Rev. Sandford John Cyril Adamson. The font of the 16th century is preserved in the church. All its panels are filled with carvings. Four contain the instruments of the Passion. (1) The initial "M" for the Virgin Mary, (2) the holy name of "I.H.S.," (3) the initial "I" for Jesus, (4) two whips crossed in saltire, (5) three nails, (6) the hammer and pincers, (7) the spear and rod hyssop, and (8) a shield charged with three mullets. This has been supposed to be
THE COAT OF ARMS OF ABBOT PASLEW
but from the absence of a fess that cannot be the case. The font is of the same period as those at Burnley, Altham, and Haslingden. "The chapels of Merclesden (now Marsden) and of Holme were erected, as appears from their architecture and some other evidence,between thereigns of Henry VI. and Henry VII.," says Dr. Whitaker, but afterwards he changes his opinion and writes as follows:- "Marsden has a small chapel of uncertain antiquity, but evidently prior to the Reformation, dependent upon the Parochial Chapelry of Colne, and held along with it. Dedication unknown. This was a poor and mean structure, apparently of the age of Henry VIII., and with the cyphers "I.H.S." on the little belfry. In the yard was a very large block of freestone, the base of a cross. All these symptoms prove it to have existed before the Reformation. Were I to hazard a conjecture as to the consecration of the chapel, it would be that the ceremony took place A.D. 1544, when John Bird, first Bishop of Chester, is known to have dedicated the neighbouring Chapel of Pendle on October 1st." "The old Chapel of Holme," he says, "bore marks of the same age with Marsden." It never occurs before this time and was dissolved as a Chantry four years after (1548), so that it is highly probable that all three underwent this ordinance (of dedication or consecration) at the same time. Dr.Whitaker is, however, of opinion that this Chapel was identical with
THE "CAPELLA DE TRAWDEN,"
mentioned in the later compotuses of Whalley Abbey and this, of consequence, that forest anciently extended here. In an English Charter (Towneley M.SS.) certain lands are described as lying in the "town of Marsden and chace of Trawden." "This," he says, "puts the matter out of doubt." Again, "this opinion is rendered more probable by the following which I lately met with in two original charters at Towneley:- "Ric. Clericus de Merclesden (32 Edward I), 1303-4," and secondly, "Kirk Clough infra Chaceam de Trawden justa Merclesden 22, Henry VI" (1443-4.) It is proved by this that the Chantry of Little Marsden existed in 1303. I find no list of incumbents of this Chapel, which was subsidiary to Colne. Holme, as Dr. Whitaker finally decided, was founded as a Chantry after the dissolution of Whalley Abbey. It was dissolved soon after the accession of Edward VI, when a pension of £1 10s. 4d. was granted to Hugh Watmore, Stipendiary Priest, which he continued to receive till 1553. In 3rd Elizabeth he sold portion of Chantry funds to Thomas Whitaker, of Holme, but the Chantry House, though never reduced to a ruin, continued without a minister for nearly 200 years.
THE RECORDS OF BURNLEY CHURCH
occasionally give the expenses incurred by wardens when the King's preacher visited and preached in the chapel. These itinerant clergymen are now extinct, but originally consisted of four who shared a royal stipend of £200 per annum, first established by Queen Elizabeth, and after regulated by James I, "out of zeal to God's glory, and care of the souls of many thousands of his Majesty's subjects within the county of Lancaster, there being great want of maintenance for preachers in most places of that shire." Their several appointments were always under the direction of the Bishop of the diocese, who assuredly sent them into those districts most needing spiritual instruction. The Rev. Anthony Wetherhead, M.A., of Christ's College, Canterbury, was, however, licensed to the incumbent in 1742, and on his death in 1760 was succeeded by Rev. W, Halliwell, who was also for some time master of the Grammar School at Burnley. He was succeeded in 1797 by Dr. Whitaker, from whose "History of Whalley" most of the preceding facts are derived, and in 1788, the old chapel growing ruinous, it was pulled down, and rebuilt on higher ground at an expense of £870. The living is now endowed with about 130 acres of glebe, and is in the gift of Mrs. Master-Whitaker, of The Holme, whose father in 1850 placed a handsome stained glass window in the chancel of the church. The next incumbent was the Rev. Jno. Langfield, who was succeeded by the Rev. Dan. Sutcliffe, the present vicar. Lastly, in regard to my own church of
ST. MARY, NEWCHURCH-IN-PENDLE,
Baines tells us in respect of this building that "the original ecclesiastical edifice at Church was of the age of Henry III. When the chapel was erected at Goldshaw afterwards it took the name of Newchurch. If he be not alluding to Church, near Accrington, he must mean that our village was formerly called Church (and of this the common name of the village, "The Kirk" seems a relic) when that type of ecclesiastical building was first erected there (tempore[/] Henry III, [i]i.e. between 1216 and 1271) and that afterwards in A.D. 1544 at the time of the second foundation, (temp. Henry VIII.) the New Church gave its name to the village. This appears the most reasonable hypothesis, for the exisrence of a church here previous to 1544, is clearly proved, being then styled "The Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of Pendle.) The earliest account of the foundation of this church is found in Harrison Ainsworth's "Lancashire Witches" - not perhaps, a very profound and warrantable authority for an antiquarian statement, though we can scarcely imagine that he invented the statement without authority. Of this statement, however, I have as yet obtained no confirmation. He says: "Throughout this weird region, thinly peopled it is true, but still of great extent, and apparently abandoned to the powers of darkness, only one edifice could be found where its inhabitants could meet to pray, and this was
AN ANCIENT CHAPEL AT GOLDSHAW BOOTH,
orignally erected in the reign of Henry III, though subsequently in part rebuilt in 1544, and which, with its low grey tower peeping from out the trees, was just discernable." This account, too, seems to support the view of Baines's statement already quoted. Baines tells us that "in the churchyard anciently stood a low plain cross, at which in the 29th Henry VI (i.e. A.D. 1451) Rauf, Abbott of Whalley, with the Charterers and customary tenants without the Chapelry held a meeting to abate encroachments on the Common." I gather from this statement that originally, before the enclosure of the churchyard, which, however, appears to have existed from an early period, Newchurch was a field-kirk, a mere oratory, or chapel of ease, so-called, not from its situation in the country, but from its lying enclosed and open to the adjoining fields. This had no right or place of sepulture and no stated endowments, but the founder was required by the laws of Edgar, without subtracting anything from his tithes for the support of his chaplain, to sustain him out of his own discretion out of the remaining nine parts of his income. Such chapels were not parochial but often became so by obtaining rites of baptism and sepulture. Who the founder was in this case is only conjectural. A certain, or rather an uncertain, light is thrown upon the subject by the order of Bishop Bird on the occasion of his dedication of St. Mary's on October 1st, 1544. By this order "the curate," or, as we should now phrase it, "the incumbent" of the Castle Parish of Clitheroe was prohibited from officiating in the parish of Newchurch. From this it would seem that this parish was formerly either
A PART OF THE CASTLE PARISH OF CLITHEROE
or was worked from it as a centre. I think it probable that it was founded temp. Henry III. as a chapel of ease to Clitheroe, St Michael's in Castro having, as we know, from Delaval's Charter, been in existence temp. Henry 1st. Nay its very name may have been suggested by St. Mary Magdalene to whom the present Church of Clitheroe is dedicated - a church, which is, we know, coeval with St. Michael's in Castro, but this is conjecture. In the Marriage Register book, A.D., 1866, my predecessor - the Rev. N. M. German - makes this statement for which, however, he assigns no authority:- "Newchurch-in-Pendle is an ancient Chapelry, the Church of S. Mary, Newchurch, being the second ecclesiastical structure built in the whole parish of Whalley. It was consecrated and opened for Divine service on the 1st day of October, 1544." This was under Bird, first Bishop of Chester, three years after the foundation of the See; previously Newchurch would be in the Diocese of Lichfield. Of the existence of this Chapelry previous to 1544, even if we ignore the testimony of Baines, not always reliable, and that of Harrison Ainsworth also, there is distinct and irrefutable evidence. In the Liber corrections or Coucher book of Whalley Abbey, mention is made of a visitation of the clergy held at Whalley, when John Specke, chaplain of Goldshaw Booth, exhibited his orders. This was on May 20th, 1529. This Rev. John Specke is again mentioned on April 21st, 1530. In the same book the Rev. Wm. Salter Capellanus Nove, Capelle in Penhull, is stated at a visitation held September 4th, 1532, to have taken an oath of Canonical Obedience, and again in 1532 the Chapel of Blessed Virgin Mary of Pendle is endowed. I possess the name of
19 INCUMBENTS OF NEWCHURCH
making, with the two chaplains of the earlier foundation, 21 in all. They commence with John Specke, A.D. 1529, and end with myself. We have an old chalice amongst our communion plate dated 1633, and containing the names of four wardens of that era. The chalice has a paten fitting either to the top of bottom of the cup. The architecture of the church is Grecian Doric. It has been conjectured that a Lawrence Spenser, who was buried here in 1584, may have been a grandfather of Edmund Spenser, the celebrated poet, author of "The Fairie Queen." His family is known to have sprung from the Burnley neighbourhood, and Edmund andLawrence were favourite christian names in the family. Apologising for having detained you so long, and having nothing further of any particular interest in regard to my own parish to bring before you, I here conclude my account of "The Old Churches in the Burnley Rural Deanery."
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