Lancashire

Churches

A C15 tower and east wall, with a nave and chancel by Rickman

Clitheroe is a town of two hills - on one, perched on a rocky outcrop, is the battered Norman keep of Clitheroe Castle, and on the other the parish church of St Mary Magdalene. There has been a church on this site since at least 1122, when the building was granted to the Priory of St John in Pontefract. The chancel arch of this Norman building was taken down as recently as 1828, but nothing now remains of it. The oldest of what we see today dates from the early C15 rebuilding. In 1828-9 and later there was further and substantial rebuilding that has given the church its present character.

St Mary's C15 west tower is typical of the area - a west door with hollow moulded arches, a west window that once lit the interior, but now opens onto a ringing chamber, simple bell louvres, and a south east corner stair projection. The upper part of the tower, including the corner turrets and spire with flying buttresses, was added in 1846, and makes the church very visible in the town.

Of the same period is the east wall of the church, with its fine window with Perpendicular panel tracery. It is common for the whole chancel to be retained during C19 rebuilding - see Penwortham or Hornby - but less so for just a wall and window to remain. Perhaps it was the quality of the tracery that led to the window being saved. The main lights of the window are filled with heraldic glass of c.1830 - fifteen shields of families and organisations important in Clitheroe's history. They are Whalley Abbey, York, Canterbury, Chester, Assheton of Whalley, De Lacy, Duchy of Lancaster, Dukes of Albemarle, Dukes of Montague, Dukes of Buccleuch, Lord Ribblesdale, Lord Brownlow, Borough Shield, Lord Curzon and Lord Howe.

The nave is the work of Thomas Rickman, and dates from 1828-9. Rickman (1776-1841) is as well known as an early architectural antiquarian as he is architect, and his "Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture" (1819) was responsible for the terms Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular being used to subdivide English Gothic. Here, at a cost of £3,500 (including £1,500 from the Commissioners for the Building of New Churches) he built a short chancel and a nave with tall, thin, octagonal piers, and increased the capacity from under 500, to 1,150. Galleries along the north and south walls - with traceried fronts and supported on thin iron columns - helped to achieve this increase in capacity demanded by the town's growth. The nave is lit by tall, narrow windows of quite un-historical, though vaguely Perpendicular character. Externally the  windows mark the gallery level inside with a transom. The nave was raised with a clerestory level and vaulted roof in a restoration of 1898. The whole effect seen today is quite magnificent, and very light.

The church has a south chapel - the Alley's Chapel named after a nearby house - in which are ancient alabaster effigies of Sir Richard Radcliffe (d.1441) and his wife Catherine. Sir Richard served with Henry V at Agincourt. The altar of the chapel is a former chest-tomb of the early C18 decorated with the skull and cross bones. Above the altar, and in a south window are fragments of ancient glass, including a St Catherine) set above C20 figures.

In the nave is a churchwardens' pew of 1678 with an attached poor-box carved from a solid piece of oak and bound with iron.

The Church Website

The west tower and nave

The lower part of the tower is C15: the upper part and the spire date from 1844.

Nave looking east

The east wall retains its five-light Perpendicular window with fine panel tracery.

South door

Rickman's 1828 Gothic has little of the historical accuracy that was to come later in the C19.

The north gallery

The galleries are set back from the arcade, and are supported on slender iron columns.

East Window

The shields of c.1830 are of families and organizations important in Clitheroe's history.

Photographs and text © Tony Boughen