Bygone Burnley: The parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Whalley

Burnley Express

Bygone Burnley: The parish church of St Mary and All Saints, Whalley, with historian Roger Frost MBE, 19-05-25

Transcript

00:00Welcome to Warley Parish Church, which is the location of our local visit this time.

00:10We're in one of the most historic buildings in the whole of Lancashire.

00:14To me, it is just about the greatest of the parish churches that have survived, of course, in Lancashire,

00:22because lots of towns grew from small villages, which had churches, many of them were enlarged, replaced, and so on.

00:32But here, we have got a church founded in the late 7th century, in very good condition,

00:42and containing some very historic artifacts, which we'll talk about today.

00:50The church itself goes back to 595, but I did say 7th century,

00:58because it's clear that the building wasn't completed until just inside the 7th century.

01:05But now we're going to turn and look at one of the great features of the church, the chancel window.

01:11Now we're in the chancel of the church, and behind me is the great window inserted into the church by Dr. Whittaker, the historian.

01:25Now we'll meet him later on in our guide into the church, but I want you to look at the church.

01:32It's made up of all the families, or many of the families, that had a role in the parish of Worley in the Middle Ages.

01:44Incidentally, the parish was just about the biggest in England.

01:48It covered the whole of East Lancashire, with the exception of Blackburn.

01:53So towns like Burnley, Accrington, Nelson, which in those days was called Great Marsden, and Cone,

02:02were all in the parish of Worley, together with the Forest of Boland, or a great part of the Forest of Boland.

02:12So the families connected with that area are indicated by the Courts of Arms.

02:18If you look at the second row down, the first one is Townley of Townley, and next door to the Townleys of Townley

02:29are the Parkers of the Ribble Valley, who also had branches, a branch in Cone,

02:41and there were also Parkers at Extrasil Hall in Briarcliff.

02:45The DeLacy family is indicated by the Lion Rampant, which I think is in the first line of Armerial Bearings.

02:59And the DeLacy's were the lords of Clitheroe, and the lords of the whole area of the great medieval parish of Worley.

03:10One of the oldest things in the church, because right the way back to Roman times,

03:17there is a theory among historians that the Romans knew Worley, although nothing of their occupation of the village has survived.

03:29But the theory is that the church is built on the site of either a Roman fort.

03:37Now that's unlikely, because a fort would have been bigger than the centre of the village.

03:45But it could be a signalling station, because there were several signalling stations known to be built by the Romans

03:54on some of the roads and routes that were used by Rinchester and the Romans who occupied that town.

04:06So, excuse me, I'm sorry.

04:09So, I'll start clear.

04:13Behind me is what people call a Roman altar, or part of a Roman altar.

04:21Now, it could be a Roman altar, but if you look at it carefully, it looks to be an image of a man holding a weapon.

04:31Now, what is likely is that the Roman fort, when you all had several different garrisons over the years,

04:41one of them was a cavalry regiment, and they came from what is now the Ukraine,

04:52and then there was a Spanish regiment.

04:57They were foot soldiers, and this looks like a foot soldier carrying a weapon.

05:05So, it could be that it is a member of the Spanish regiment that occupied Rinchester 2,000 years ago, almost.

05:18Not quite 2,000 years, but in that area.

05:22At ground level, there are three examples of medieval architecture.

05:28Now, I won't mention all of them.

05:31The larger one behind me is where the clergymen would sit during the long services,

05:39and then behind it, and to the right, are two smaller ones.

05:48Now, the first one, on the extreme right, is a piscina, where the priest would wash his hands,

05:55and the chalice would be cleaned from the water that was there,

05:59in services that took place right the way through until after the Reformation.

06:06Now, we're in a medieval church, and there are signs of the medieval nature of the building,

06:15and three of them can be seen in the pictures that we show you now.

06:21The window above me is in the lancet style, which is end of the 13th century.

06:29It's an English Gothic design, and it's supposed to represent a lance.

06:36And in the picture we showed you of the Roman altar, the soldier was carrying a lance.

06:43So, that is the connection between that.

06:46I'm sitting now in one of the Missouri Coress of Wally Parish Church.

06:53But originally, they were erected in the abbey, and were built for the abbey,

07:00which is only a few hundred yards from where we are.

07:03Now, the Missouri Coress are where the clergy, or the monks in actual fact,

07:09used to partake in the services that were taking place.

07:16They used to sit here, and when they got a bit tired in the standing parts of the service,

07:26they would then lean back on the benches,

07:30sit on the leaf that turns up, like I am doing now,

07:37because some services would take over two hours.

07:42And some of these monks were very elderly.

07:46They needed this support.

07:48But what is remarkable about these is,

07:52as I remove from here,

07:54that each of these is carved individually.

07:59Now, there are several very famous carvings.

08:04They're different.

08:05The one that I like most is the one which shows

08:11a goose being shorn.

08:16Now, that doesn't mean had its hair cut.

08:20It means having its feet covered in a kind of medieval tarmac.

08:27It's called shooing the goose.

08:30And, of course, shooing a goose is a futile thing to do.

08:38And so the phrase means,

08:40when you say shooing a goose,

08:42it is one person saying to another,

08:46they've done something futile or pointless.

08:49Rarely in a church do you find what is behind me now.

08:54This is part of the medieval arrangements for the congregation.

09:02But this dates just out more recent than the medieval times.

09:06It's a cage and families paid to occupy prominent positions in the church.

09:15This is located adjacent to the chancel.

09:18It wasn't originally here.

09:21It's now located.

09:23So the family would come in,

09:26sit on the pews,

09:28and they would be able to observe the mass at close quarters.

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