Whalley Church Exterior

Whalley Church Exterior
Whalley Church Exterior
Whalley Church Exterior
269458
ECL20131105008
Whalley Church Exterior
Whalley
This is the only view of the completed church photographed by Edmund Buck. It is little changed today.

The church of St. Mary and All Saints is an active parish church in the diocese of Blackburn. It is a grade 1 listed building.

A church probably existed on this site in Anglo Saxon times (reference is made to "The White Church Under the Hill") and the church was mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086.

The present structure dates from the early 13th Century (probably c.1200 AD), replacing a simpler structure. On closer examination it is possible to see evidence of re-used Roman building stones. Whalley lay on the important Roman Road from Ribchester to Eboracum (York).

The tower was added in the 15th. Century, circa 1440, and strongly buttressed to the north-west and south-west. It is 20 feet square and 60 feet high. The porch to the South was added in 1844 and that to the North in 1909. The South door inside the porch has pillars from the earlier 11th. Century church. The tower is Perpendicular in style.

The building of the tower at the west end of the church removed windows and darkened the interior significantly, which explains the existence of the clerestory windows (originally small and round but now enlarged and visibile in Buck's photograph.

A detailed description of the church can be read in 'A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6.

The Churchyard and its stone crosses are further described elsewhere in this collection. Although a Churchyard existed beforehand it was first enclosed only in the early 19th Century. Several houses behind the DeLacy Arms public house were demolished to facilitate it.

It is worth noting that the gravestone inscriptions are a valuable source of historical information - and the occasional curiosity! For example Jacob Green's headstone records his death as February 30 1819, and Anne Crowshaw died on April 31 1752!
Glass slide, positive
Monochrome
7.36 x 5.45
c1900
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Box G W/14
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