St Lawrence's Church, located on Chapel Hill in

Longridge Longridge is a market town and civil parish in the borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is situated north-east of the city of Preston, at the western end of Longridge Fell, a long ridge above the River Ribble. Its nearest neigh ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England, is an active

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the

diocese of Blackburn The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created on 12 November 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool and Burnley, the cities of Lancast ...

. Built as a chapel of ease of St Wilfrid, Ribchester in the early 16th century, it was made a parish church in 1868, a role it now shares, jointly, with the nearby St Paul's Church.

History

The earliest documented reference to a 'Chapel of Longridge' is made in 1522. Rebuilding work took place in 1716 and again in 1784, when the chapel was repaired and enlarged; the tower was added in 1841, and in 1926 a north porch was built at the west end of the nave. In 2005, at the request of Longridge Town Council, a conservation area appraisal and boundary review was conducted. The report recommended the creation of a new zone, and in 2008 the church and its surrounds were designated the St Lawrence's Church Conservation Area. The nearby St Paul's was built as a chapel of ease for St Lawrence.

Architecture

Stained glass

The stained glass of the north and south sides of the ground floor of the church dates from 1938–40, and is by glassmakers

James Powell and Sons The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained glass window manufacturers. As ''Whitefriars Glass'', the company existed from the 17th century, but became well ...

. The west window, a memorial to the fallen of the First World War, was designed by the Lancastrian firm

Shrigley & Hunt Shrigley and Hunt was an English firm which produced stained-glass windows and art tiles. History The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire. In 1868, control of Shrigley's ...

. In 1975, the artist

Brian Clarke Brian Clarke (born 2 July 1953) is a British painter, architectural artist and printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations with major figures in Modern and conte ...

was commissioned to designed ten pairs of stained glass windows for the north and south mezzanine galleries. The sequence of windows, considered the first works of the artist's maturity, reflect the influence of Japanese screen painting on Clarke's work, depicting local scenes including the

River Ribble The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. It starts close to the Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire, and is one of the few that start in the Yorkshire Dales and flow westwards towards the Irish Sea (t ...

Pendle Hill Pendle Hill is in the east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill in the Pe ...

, Longridge Fell and Fairsnape Fell, and the local reservoirs and quarries, designed in a semi-abstract way.

Exterior

Interior

Inside the church are two war memorials commemorating fallen servicemen and officers who had been inhabitants of Longridge. A marble tablet notes the casualties of the First World War, and a brass plaque below it lists those who died in the Second World War. The inscription on the tablet reads:

To the Glory of God & to the memory of Longridge officers and men who died for their country in the Great War 1914-1918. This tablet is reverently presented by Parishioners and friends 1939 - 1945.

Present day

St Lawrence's is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Preston, the archdeaconry of Lancaster, and the diocese of Blackburn. The church works in association with St Paul's Church, with which it is, jointly and equally, the parish church of Longridge.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longridge, St Lawrence's Church Church of England church buildings in Lancashire Diocese of Blackburn Churches in Ribble Valley St Lawrence's Church