St Mary's Church is in the village of

Newchurch in Pendle Newchurch in Pendle is a village in the civil parish of Goldshaw Booth, Pendle, Lancashire, England, adjacent to Barley, to the south of Pendle Hill. It was formerly part of Roughlee Booth until its transferral in 1935. History Famous for ...

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 Lancas ...

, England. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It is 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 t ...

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 Lanc ...

, the archdeaconry of Blackburn and the deanery of Pendle. 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 ...

is combined with that of St Thomas', Barrowford.

History

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ease is deliberately bu ...

was on the site of the present church in 1250. A later chapel was dedicated by the Rt Revd John Bird,

Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in ...

, on 1 October 1544. It is not known when the tower was built, but it was restored in 1653, and again in 1712. The rest of the building dates from around 1740. In 1815 it was decided to raise to walls of the church to accommodate a gallery. This was built between 1816 and 1817 at a cost of £352 (). In 1830 the church bell was purchased. Restorations took place in 1850 and 1902.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in hammer-dressed stone, with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

to the porch and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roof. Its plan consists of a west tower, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

with a north

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, pa ...

, a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, and a south porch. At the east end of the aisle is a

Lady Chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, ...

and to the east of this is the vicar's

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. The choir vestry is at the west end of the aisle. The tower is in two stages with a string course between. In the second stage is a clock face with

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed belfry windows above it. The summit is

embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

. On the south and north front of the church are four windows with elliptical heads. At the east end is a

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

window with a keystone. On the south front is blocked priest's door. On the southwest corner of the nave roof is a

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a f ...

dated 1718. On the west face of the tower is a carving which resembles a filled-in window above which is a dripstone. This is said to resemble the all-seeing "Eye of God".

Interior

In the porch is a memorial containing the names of the men from the parish who lost their lives in the World Wars together with the names of those who served in the armed forces in these wars. Inside the church, to the left of the entrance, are the

churchwarden A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...

s' seats and a board containing the names of the districts into which the parish was divided. Inside the church is a north arcade of

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns and wooden panelled north and west galleries. The chandelier dates from 1756.

Organ

The organ in the west gallery was made by Wordsworth and Company of Leeds, and was installed in 1890 at a cost of £550. It was refurbished in 1990 and then completely rebuilt in 2000 by Harrison & Harrison of Durham at a cost of over £75,000.

External features

In the churchyard are two Grade II listed features. The Parker tomb is a table tomb dated 1691. The Nutter headstone probably dates from 1694. It is possible that the members of the family inscribed on this headstone were relatives of Alice Nutter, one of the women accused in the Pendle witch trials. Also in the churchyard are the

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

of two soldiers and a

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

officer of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Present activities

St Mary's continues to be an active parish church, holding regular services. In addition, it is one of the few remaining churches to hold an annual rushbearing service in August.

References

External links

Lancashire churches
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newchurch in Pendle: St Mary's Church Church of England church buildings in Lancashire Grade II* listed churches in Lancashire English Gothic architecture in Lancashire Diocese of Blackburn Mary's, Newchurch Forest of Bowland