The Church Bells of Lancashire
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The Church Bells of Lancashire BY F. H. Cheetham File – 03: Part III The Hundred of Blackburn This document is provided for you by The Whiting Society of Ringers visit www.whitingsociety.org.uk for the full range of publications and articles about bells and change ringing THE CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE. BY F. H. CHEETHAM. PART III. FOREWORD. HAD hoped in this volume of the Transactions to I include both the hundreds of Blackburn and Amounderness, but owing to the disorders and exigencies of war time I have been able to complete only half of my task. The hundred of Amounderness is, therefore, left over for the present, but I hope it will be ready for next year's volume. My thanks are again due to all who have assisted me in this further instalment of the catalogue of bells in the older churches of the county, and especially to those incumbents who have so readily afforded me access to the bells under their charge; to the minister and deacons of Lower Chapel, Darwen, for permitting me to inspect the bell there; and to Mrs. Baxter, of Stanley Grange, Hoghton, for permission to inspect the old bells from Samlesbury, now in her possession. My thanks are also due to the Rev. H. J. Elsee, M.A., for help in proof reading; to Messrs. Mears & Stainbank, of Whitechapel, and Messrs. John Taylor & Co., of Loughhorough, for information regarding hells cast hy them; and to Mr. H. B. Walters, M.A., F.S.A., who, as before, has helped me in many ways, and has been good enough also to read over the proofs. B 2 CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE It is, perhaps, as well to repeat what was stated in the original Foreword (Part I.), "The inscriptions have in all cases been copied from the bells themselves," never merely from printed sources. It is my endeavour to provide in these lists an authoritative account of the bells of the county. A recent writer (1917), in dealing with the bells of some of the churches of West Derby, Leyland, and Amounderness hundreds, has unfortunately repeated many of th e errors of th e former transcribers, having in most cases taken the inscriptions from the older publications. F. H. C. THE HUNDRED OF BLACKBURN. The hundred of Blackburn comprises the ancient parishes of Blackburn, Whalley, Chipping, and Rib chester, and lies wholly within the diocese of Manchester. Blackburn and Whalley form part of the archdeaconry of Blackburn, and Ribchester and Chipping, which lie north of th e Rib ble, are included in the archdeaconry of Lancaster. There were one hundred and twenty-two modern parishes within th e Blackburn hundred in 1915.* The ancient parish of Whalley was of great extent, comprising no less than 106,395 acres (I66t square miles), of which a small part was in Yorkshire. The parish church being situated close to the western boundary of thi s vast tr act, it is not surprising that --- -----._--.- _._-- -_ . - _..__.- • Part of the parish of Mitton is in the hundred of Blackburn, but the church is in th e West Riding of Yorkshire, and th ere is no chapel of ancient foundation in the Lancashire portion of the ancient parish. Hurst Green Church dates only from 1838 (bell by " T homas Mears, Founder, London, 1841." 25~in. diam.] and is in the diocese of Ri pon. On the other hand, the an cient chapel of Whitewell, in York sh ire, is in the Manchester diocese and archdeaconry of Blackburn. CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE. 3 a number of chapels soon came into existence, and others were founded from time to time down to the reign of Henry VIII. These pre-Reformation chapels were Accrington, Altham, Burnley, Chatburn, Church, Clitheroe, Colne, Downham, Haslingden, Holme, Little Marsden, Newchurch - in - Pendle, Newchurch - in - Ros send ale, and Padiham. Langho was founded in the sixteenth century, sometime before 1557, but probably after the Dissolution. Goodshaw dates from 1540. In Blackburn parish the pre-Reformation chapels were Great Harwood, Samlesbury, Tockholes, and Walton-le Dale. Darwen existed in the sixteenth century, but was probably founded after the Dissolution, and Balderston is of uncertain date, though probably sixteenth century. In Ribchester parish were the chapels of Longridge and Stidd, but Chipping- had, and still has, only its parish church. As regards the inventory of 1552 in this hundred, only the indentures of Blackburn parish have been preserved, consequently the number of bells in the other parishes at this date, except in a few instances, is not known. There are four mediseval bells in the hundred, two at Downham, one at Longridge, and the other, formerly belonging to Samlesbury, in private possession. The Long-ridge bell is of fourteenth century date, and those at Downham are by a fifteenth century founder, perhaps J ohn Walgrave. The old Samlesbury bell I have, as yet, not been able to examine. The only sixteenth century bell in the hundred is the priest's bell at Whalley, cast by Peter van den Ghein, of Louvain, in r537. Th ere are two seventeenth century bells, both dated 1633, and from the Cliburys' foundry at Wellington, Shropshire. One of these is at Tockholes and the other 4 CHURCH BEI.LS OF LANCASHIRE. at the modern church of Haslingden Grane. The history of this latter is somewhat' obscure. Itwas formerly at Church, near Accrington, and appears to have belonged there originally. The later discarded bell from Samlesbury Church, also in private possession, is undated, but belongs to the class B known as \v . bells, which were apparently the work of a founder, R. B., at a place with a name in w. These bells 'occur in different parts of the kingdom, but so far nobody has succeeded in tracing their origin. The date of this particular example is probably about the end of the seventeenth century. The bell at Lower Chapel, Darwen, is apparently a recasting of one of the same type, and preserves part of the original lettering. The number of eighteenth century bells yet remaining in the hundred is disappointingly small, being in all only twenty-one, made up of three. rings of six-Blackburn, Chipping, and Walton-Ie-Dale-and three single bells. The oldest of these is the bell at Bacup (St. John'S), which was cast in 1717 by Samuel Smith, of York. It is more than half a century older than the first chapel at Bacup, so must have been cast for some other place. Next in order of date are the six old bells at Blackburn Parish Church, cast as a ring in 1737 by Abel Rudhall, Gloucester, the tenor recast in 1747. These are the only Rudhall bells I have come across in Blackburn hundred, and are, indeed, the only ones in this part of the county given in the "C :~talogue of Bells cast by the Rudhalls" printed in Ellacombe's Church Bells of Gloucesiershire. The old bell at Holme-in-Cliviger was cast in 1747 by Edward Seller, of York, and Seller also cast a ring of six for Whalley Parish Church in 1741, but these have since been recast. The single bell at Langho is by Luke Ashton of Wigan, 1756, and at Walton-le-Dale is the CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE. 5 earliest peal cast for Lancashire at the Whitechapel foundry. Four of these are dated 1760 and one 1761, the style of the firm being t~en Lester & Pack. The tenor, by Pack & Chapman, is dated 1780. The ring of six at Chipping was cast at Whitechapel in 1793 by Thomas Mears I. The more modern work of the Whitechapel foundry is represented in fifteen of the older churches by seventy five bells. In alphabetical order they are as follows: Accrington (six), Balderston (one), Blackburn (four), Blackburn, St. Paul (one), Burnley (eight), Chatburn (one), Clitheroe (eight), Colne (eight), Great Harwood (one), Haslingden (eight), Newchurch-in-Pendle (one), Newchurch-in-Rossendale (eight), Padiham (eight), Rib chester (six), and Whalley (six). The earliest of these bells are seven of the old ring at Burnley by Thomas Mears I., 1802, and the latest the ring at Padiham, by Mears & Stainbank, 1901. Messrs. John Taylor & Co., of Loughborough, cast two bells for Downham in 1881, a ring of eight for Samlesbury in r899, and a bell for Balderston in 1907. The bell at St. John's, Blackburn, is by William Dobson, of Downham, Norfolk; that at Altham by John Warner & Sons, London : and at Church, near Accrington, is a ring of six by W. Blews & Sons, Birmingham. The single bell at Little Marsden was cast by W. Roberts & Co., Nelson. At St. James', Darwen, the bell is blank. At Holme-in-Cliviger is a set of eleven hemispherical bells by Mears & Stainbank, which, with the old bell, mak e up a "ring" of twelve. The firms of Mears & Stainbank, John Taylor & Co., and John Warner & Sons are, of course, responsible 6 CHURCH B E L LS OF LANCASHIRE. for a large number of bells in churches built since the year 1800. The present series of papers, as explained in the introduction, is concerned only with bells in churches founded before the end of the 'eighteenth century. ACCRINGTON. ST. JAMES. Six bells. 1. ACCRINGTON LANCASHIRE 1805 ~ THO~ MEARS & SON OF LONDON FECIT (2 8 ~ i n. diam.) 2. The same. ( 2 9 ~ i n . diarn.) 3. The same. (31in. diam.) 4. The same, but with THOMAS instead of THOS. (jain, diam.) 5. The same as No. 4- Usin. diam.) 6. ~ ACCRINGTON LANCASHIRE 1805.