St Matthew's Church is in St Matthew's Street,

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

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. It 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 ...

. The original church was built between 1876 and 1879, and was designed by William Waddington and Sons. This burnt down in 1927 and was replaced by the present church. In the 1970s St Matthew's joined with the neighbouring

Holy Trinity Church Holy Trinity Church may refer to: Albania * Holy Trinity Church (Berat), Berat County * Holy Trinity Church, Lavdar, Opar, Korçë County Armenia * Holy Trinity Church, Yerevan Australia * Garrison Church, Sydney, South Wales, also known as ''H ...

History

St Matthew's was designed by William Waddington and Sons, and built between 1876 and 1879. The Lancaster firm of architects

Paley and Austin Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under vario ...

had taken part in the competition for the design, but had been unsuccessful. Miss Halsted of Hood House laid the foundation stone on 7 October 1876. The church was

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

on 1 November 1879 by the Bishop of Manchester. It contained stained glass windows designed by Kempe and

Burne-Jones The Burne-Jones Baronetcy, of Rottingdean in the County of Sussex, and of The Grange in the Parish of Fulham in the County of London, was a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 May 1894 for the artist and designer ...

. Vestments, lighted candles and

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s, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, were used until the 1880s, but caused disquiet in the diocese. The Bishop of Manchester refused to allow the parish to have an assistant

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

until the incumbent had made assurances about the church's position. The use of two altar candles and an adherence to

Anglican liturgy The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

is still reflected in the worship at the church. In 1924 electric lighting was installed. On Christmas Day 1927 the church was destroyed by fire caused by the electrics, leaving only the walls standing; it was rebuilt between 1929 and 1931 supervised by

Henry Paley Henry Anderson Paley (1859–1946) (usually known as Harry Paley) was an English architect. Training and career He was the fifth and last child of the Lancaster architect Edward Paley. He was educated at Castle Howard School in Lancaster, then ...

Austin and Paley Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under vario ...

, the successor in the Lancaster practice. The work cost £14,093 and provided seating for 620 people. The rebuilt church was opened by the

Bishop of Blackburn The Bishop of Blackburn is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Blackburn in the Province of York. The diocese covers much of the county of Lancashire and has its see in the town of Blackburn, where the seat of the diocese is locat ...

. The longest serving vicar of the church was Revd F. Jones who served between 1923 and 1945. In the 1970s St Matthew's integrated with

Architecture

The church is designed in the style of the 13th century, with a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

at the southwest corner. The stained glass includes a window dating from 1951 by

Harry Stammers Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

. There are also two windows by Henry Harvey. The original

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

of 1880, designed by Jardine of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

was destroyed in the fire. It was replaced by a three-

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organ which had been built in 1920 for a church in Farnworth by Alexander Young, also of Manchester. This was moved to Burnley and rebuilt in St Matthew's in 1933 by Laycock and Bannister of Cross Hills.

Present day

St Matthew's is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Burnley, the archdeaconry of Blackburn, and the

. Its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

has been combined with that of Holy Trinity, Burnley forming the benefice of Burnley (Habergham Eaves) St Matthew with Holy Trinity. It holds services on Sundays, and during the week. Associated with the church are groups of Scouts, Guides, and the Mothers' Union.

Notes

References

Citations Sources * *

External links