NEW CHAPTER WRITTEN ON WHALLEY ABBEY’S COLOURFUL HISTORY


Financial Times 2nd May 1954


SECURITY, I '


1SI0N AND R EQU IR E D .


Investment


Department— ask for details.


A .


Stone high altar erected in open amid the ruins


al,ar constructed in stone to resemble as closely as possible the high altar which stood on the same spot in the Middle Ages was consecrated at a colourful


ceremony among the ruins of Whallcy Abbey on Whit Monday morning. The ceremonies began with a procession of choir and clergy from the Diocesan


Conference House to the centre of the ruins where the altar stood, surrounded by a cross, candlesticks, and communion vessels, borrowed front the nearby Parish Church. The Bishop of Blackburn (Rt. Rev. C. R. Claxton)


consecrated the new altar, standing behind the altar and facing the kneeling congregation marked with holy oil on the altar the five wounds of Christ.


The sun shone on the


IA98K xh Street


ancient ruins where many of the 300 people present had found seats. Other’s sat on chairs or spread


themselves on the grass. The Bishop of Lancaster, the


Rt. Rev. A. L. E. H o s k y n s- Abrahall, read the epistle and the Bishop of Burnley, the Rt. Rev. G. E. Holderness, read the gospel.


In a short address, Canon W.


R. F. Browning, of Whatley Abbey, said that both Catholic and Evangelical in the church were symbolised by the altar, which was represented by the Cistercian Abbey of Whalley at its best.


“ We today, by restoring this


high altar, do not condone the lollies of the monks or deny that reform was necessary,” he said. “ It has always been a mystery


why Abbot Paslew pleaded guilty. He suffered at the hands of men whose motives were self interest, in defence of the Roman Catholic Xaith. ” After the dissolution the


priest-monks took the king’s pension, or wives from neigh­ bouring nunneries until a new law two years later reinstated celibacy. ” Canon Browning, who took as


his text " Men like darkness rather than light.” described the scene as he thought it would have been in the days when the Abbey was great. “ It must have looked splendid


from Whalley Nab. a golden cas­ ket in the sunshine. It Is a pity that men preferred darkness to


light. “ The ruins of this monastery


I


I'.'iilv 625 T.v. D.h.R. rciucts 1 area. Don’t


k S/i id. weekly 1 = ^ J Zx - \ j m , J


|>y to net more. 'Mrr^ brlow.


' Lliiid r\ , 32353233^


|;o e [


DECLARE WAR NOW


ON GREENFLY & OTHER BUGS


ABOL-X %


GIVES 3 to 4 WEEKS PROTECTION FROM 1 APPLICATION


show that a church forgets at its peril to reform itself. “ We hope that there will be


pilgrims from all over England to the Abbey and to the altar, like tlie pilgrimage made by 400


schoolchildren fr om H a n - Chester." The service was accompanied


by recorded organ music and choral singing. The altar has been designed


by Mr. C. B. Martindale, a mem­ ber of the Diocesan Advisory Building Committee, and has been paid for by donations. The Bishop of Blackburn cele­


brated Communion and it is believed that this was the first Communion service according to the Book of Common Prayer that has been used at the Abbey. The last time there was a Communion service would be Roman Mass before the dissolution of the Abbey during the Reformation in the 16th century.


IN 12th CENTURY The monks of Whalley came


from the Cistercian Abbey of Stanlaw which was founded in the 1170's in the Wirral penin­ sula near the point where the River Gowy joins the Mersey. The move from Stanlaw was


made because Stanlaw became flooded in 1279.


There might never have been


a move to East Lancashire, .how­ ever, had it not been for the family connection between the Constables of Chestor and the do Lacy's, Lords of the Honours of Pontefract and Clitheroc.


On the death of Robert tic


Lacy in 1193, Roger, Constable of Chester, the son of the founder of Stanlaw Abbey, inherited his estates and afterwards changed hts surname to de Lacy. Henry de Lacy agreed to


ing damage at Stanlaw from fire and gales. Abbot Gregory of Nor- biu’y and a party of about 20 monks arrived to take possession of the Rectory House on April 4, 1296. Rectory House, built by Peter


removal to Whalley in 1283 and granted the monks the right of appointment to Whalley Parish Church with a view to appropria­ tion and to the rebuilding of the monastery on tile glebe land. After many difficulties, includ­


More serious was the quarrel with Walter of Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, over the appropria­ tion of Whalley Church. Langton ' had been suspended by the Pope for some ecclesiastical offence, and the monks had obtained per­ mission to appoint to the Vicar­ age. On Langton's reinstatement, lie took legal action, and obtained the verdict against the Abbot and Convent for 1000 marks and costs. The monks later recovered possession of the Vicarage and


Langton withdrew his claims in 1310.


JUNE, 1296 These difficulties do much to


explain the slow progress made with the buildings. The first stone had seemingly been laid by Henry de Lacy in June 1296 and in 1306 the Bishop of Whithern consecrated part of the site at least. But it was not until papal permission for a further move was finally refused in 1319, that the monks settled down to the work in earnest. In that year a grant of a quarry In Billington, probably situated on Whalley Nab. was made by Sir Adam de Huddleston and in 1320 the abbey obtained a reduction of the levy paid to tile Cistercian Order, in consideration of the expense of building work. Assuming that work began on


tile North West Gateway in 1320. the erection of the church and conventional buildings on the original plan occupied well over a century the church being finished and the first mass said In 1380. In the last half-century of the


abbey’s life, building activity was renewed on a considerable scale.


In 1480 the north-east gate­


way was finished to form a mag­ nificent new entrance and in the 16th century Abbot John Paslcw, the last Abbot of Whalley, carried out a complete recon­ struction of his own lodgings and added a lady cliapol, the exaot whereabouts of which is not yet known.


Visitors the the abbey today


of Chester, was to be their home while the work of building the new abbey proceeded. The move to Whalley having


low I an


'! ' / '/ ' ' j OTHER


INSECTICIDES PY-SPRAY


ABOL KATAKILLA CLEAN LEAF


all al THEO'S •i Ie a n e r


GARDEN CENTRE


4 and 7 YORK ST.


CLITHEROE TEL. 88


H r


been accomplished with some difficulty, it is surprising to find that within twenty years the monks were anxious to move again and went so far as to obtain, in 1316. a grant of land at Toxteth and Smithdown in Liverpool, from Thomas Earl of Lancaster, who had acquired the de Lacy estates through his mar­ riage to Alice dc Lacy. Two reasons advanced for the appli­ cation, the bleakness of the country and the absence of trees to provide timber and fuel, sound strange when we look at the site of the abbey today, but the land­ scape has altered almost beyond recognition in the meantime. Less strange, perhaps, is the third reason, the bad roads which made the transportation of corn difficult, a circumstance which may have been general In medieval Lancashire. Moreover, things had not gone well for the monks in their new home. The Prior, Thurstan of Chester, died soon after their arrival and they were involved in a series of dis­ putes which must have cost them time and trouble as well as con­ siderable legal fees. Sawley Abbey complained that the new house was nearer to them than the seven miles laid down as a mini­ mum by the Cistercian Order, but the complaint also related to a possible loss of food supplies, since Sawley was accustomed to buy tithe corn from Peter of Chester. The dispute was settled by compromise in 1305, Whalley agreeing to give Snwley pre­ ference in the purchase of corn.


naturally wonder about the size of the community which used this considerable range of build­ ings. There bad been thirty-five monks at Stanlaw. but there never seem to have been more than thirty at Whalley even in the fourteenth century, and Inter the number was reduced to twenty or less. There was also a large staff of servants, perhaps as many as ninety in the early sixteenth century, of whom about twenty might have been attached to the Abbot's personnl household. The monks had an obligation to support twenty-four aged and infirm persons within the monastery, though it is not clear that there were in fact always so many, and there might be other p e n s i o n e r s and students. Since at any given time there could also be a con­ siderable number of guests, pro­ vision had to be mode for far more than the monks them­ selves.


The Abbey had other commit­


ments which had to be met. Almsgiving was enjoined on all the religious houses and the Valor Eeclesiasticus of 1535 records an annual expenditure of over £120 on this score, includ­ ing distribution of corn, bread, fish and woollen cloth, and, on Maundy Thursday, of shoes to thirteen poor persons, following tile washing of their feet. The monks also maintained a scholar at Oxford and made a contribu­ tion to the Cistercian college there. In 1521 they paid £9 6s. 8d. for the scholar to take his B.A. degree and a number of the


Abbots had earlier studied at Oxford.


RENTS OF LANDS


varied activities from the four


The income to support these came partly appropriated


j J- TORGO 23,11--32/11 (Moulded Pols tor Soles) 3 width fittings in


Cedar Smooth Side. Child's <1-3


Part of the ruined abbey walls


churches, partly from the rents t of lnnds which the abbey held in Lancashire and Cheshire. Tlte township of Whailey itself was the demesne, which in the six­ teenth century included a dent- park to the north-easi of the village, through which “runneth a fair river, called the water of Calder, wherein is taken Sainton trout with other good fish.” The monks were also lords of the manor of the adjoining township of Billington and of part of Wis- wcll. In addition they owned land all over Blackburn Hun­ dred: in Clitheroe. Pendleton. Downham, Clintburn, Worston. Mitton. Waddington. Accrington. Read. Burnley. Ribclicstcr, Din- ton. Little Harwood. Rams- greave. Wltton. Wlthnell and Wheclton. and in Rosscndale where they owned the mill. Out­ side the immediately surround­ ing area, the abbey had three granges or farms: at Staining


near tile modern Blackpool, at Mnrland on the outskirts of Rochdale, and nt Stannev in tile ? Wirral. They had other proper­ ties in the Fylde. in tile Eccles : and Rochdale districts, and in i south west Lancashire, as well as ! the original endowments in Cheshire. In the time of Henry VIII. the income from all tlv'se possessions readied about £968 a year, and. to convert this :o mid-twentieth century prices one would need to multiply by something like forty to fifty.


To many of the people in the


surrounding area, t lie abbey must have appeared chiefly in ih role as a great landowner, when tile monks' bailiff came to colicc’. tire rent or tithes. To those who lived in the Forests of Bowland. Pontile. RosscndalD and Tttttv- den, it was a lawgiver, the Abbot and monks exercising the exempt ecclesiastical jurisdiction in these areas, which were extra- parochial. In the sixteenth cen­ tury the court was usually held in Whallcy Parish Church ami dealt with probate, marring'’, tithes, moral offences including adultery, fornication, blasphemy, perjury, and drunkenness mid such matters as absence front church, failure to contribute to church expenses or working on the sabbath, in May 1517. for instance, Margaret Crossley of Dedwinclottgh in Rossentlale was presented for ljeing a notorious swearer and for chattering dur­ ing divine service, and the wife I of Nicholas Shaw for washing j clothes on Saturday evenings.


ABBOT IN 1507 John Pnrlcw. whose faintly


j j


lived at Wiswoll Hall, became t Abbot in 1507. He hud spent ! some years at Oxford and gained j liis degree of Bachelor of j Divinity.


j ,


Paslew not only lived like a | lord, but also travollod like one; :


hts journey to London alone in 1520 cost the abbey ,£26 Ss. Od.


Henry VIII's commissioners


certainly did not discover any gross cases of immorality or mis­ conduct a; Whalley. but there is everything to indicate that the monks here, as elsewhere, were living in a way which was hardly


consist-n: with their original rule of life or with their earlier


institutions. An omen of what was ;o conic may perhaps be detected in the gift of £22 to Cardinal Wolsev in 1520. at a time witett lie was beginning to use ills power as Papal Legate to enquire into tile state of the religious houses, a number of which lie suppressed between 1524 and 1529.


The Iasi chapter at Whalloy


was one of violence and John Paslew ended his life, on the scafloltl for the part he played in the Pilgrimage of Grace, the rebellion which broke out on the northern counties in 1636 and which originated to a great extent in opposition to Henry VIII's religious changes.


Paslew was unlucky since he


had not been at all active In the pilgrimage and Whnllcy was much less “ subversive ” than its neighbour Sawlcy. where the monks were " restored ” by tile rebels after an earlier dissolution and where the King instructed tltc Earl of Derby to " cause the Abbott and certain of the chief monks to be hanged upon long pieces of timber . . . out of the steeple.”


Indeed, when the rebels under


Nicholas Tempest, of Bashall. came to Whalley. in October tilery were only admitted after threatening to use fire and it was presumably under pressure that tlte abbot and some of the monks were sworn to their cause. There is no evidence that Paslew pro­ vided tlte rebels with money beyond what lie had previously lent, together with a horse, to Tempest himself.


Only five days after the


arrival of the insurgents al Whallcy the rebellion collapsed and this was followed by an offer of pardon to all who submitted and took the oath of allegiance.


Paslew refused to submit or


take the oath, though lie seems to have tried to appease Thomas Cromwell with a grant of £6 13s. 4d. a year from Hie income of the abbey. He was tried at Lancaster on the ninth of March. 1537, pleaded guilty to high treason on five counts and was executed the next day. also at Lancaster. Tried with hint were four other monks: Henry Banastre of Sawley, Wil­ liam ‘ Haydock of Whalley and Hie Estgate brothers. Richard of Sawle.v and John of Whalley. Cue of the charges against Pas­ lew was that shelter had been given at Whalley to the two


BEAUTIFUL RIBBLESDALE . . . DOWNHAM HALL


accused monks of Sawley, though it may well have been without his personal knowledge. Paslew's plea of guilty was probably a


great help to tile authorities as tile Earl of Sussex implied when lie wrote to Cromwell “ the accomplishment of the matter of Whalley was God's ordinance, else, seeing my Lord Derby is steward of the house, and so many gentlemen tile Abbot's fee'd men. it would have been hard to find anything against him in these parts." It is in many ways characteris­


tic of tile times that tile twen­ tieth century should have seen


tile conversion of the abbey from a private residence to a Con­ ference House. But it is also a return to something near the original purpose. In 1923 the hoose and grounds were bought by the diocese of Manchester when William Temple was bishop. Three years later the diocese wns divided and the new diocese of Blackburn purchased the property. The appointment of Canon J. R. Lumb as first Warden in 1930 marks the begin­ ning of the most recent phase in the abbey's history, in which it lias become a centre of religious education. Though there are larger con­


ference houses in the North of England. Whallcy Abbey has tile two advantages of its delightful and historical setting, and of its being near the main centres of population. The abbey therefore plays an indispensable role in the life of the growing diocese of Blackburn, though when it is not needed bv the diocese it is able to welcome groups wlio come under other auspices.


DISCovenes by Reg


Exton . . .


j£A TH Y KIRBY has an­ other smash hit. “You're


the one" (Deceit 1- 11892) is terrific. There is a great orchestral introduction, com­ plete with zinging strings, which leads into a smashing heal ballad performance by Kathy. Cilia Black hits found a first-


class follow-up to her No. 1 hit— a lovely ballad called "You're my world" tParlophonc R 51331. Made to measure for iter—lyrics, music, style, the lot. Sure to get into tile lilt parade, even if it doesn't make .such a terrific impact ns the other. Coupled on tltc flip with "Suffer now I must.”


And another for the charts— Brian Poole and the Tremolos


"Someone. ' Someone" t Dccca F 11893). In complete contrast to Brian’s “Candy Man,” lie switches tempo to a soft, tuneful, wistful ballad. Most attractive— I like it immensely. Coupled with "Till tile end of time." penned by- Brian nndt T r e m e 1 o Alan Blakley, a mid-tempo beat number.


I like Ronnie Hilton's version


of tlie big American hit "Don’t let the rain come down” (H.M.V. Pop 1291). It's great, a happy, lilting, catchy, folksy-type num­ ber, which Ronnie, teamed with the Michael Sammes Singers, puts over delightfully. Should give him his biggest success so far. The sort of number which everybody of all ages can enjoy.


Good news for fans of the


Shadows. Their latest disc—“The rise and fail of Fltngel Bunt" (Columbia DB 7261) is one of their best. Good melody and an insistent, pulsating beat. It's good. Backed with "It’s a man's world." Should be popular.


An LP for ail Davo Clark funs.


Columbia have brought out an album "Session with the Dave Clark Five” (35SX 1598), which should appeal to them all. You can hear them in a dozen numbers, among them "Can’t you see that she’s mine,” "I need you I love you,” "Zip-a-dee-doo- dah," "For ever and a day,” "She’s all mine” and. “Theme without a name." Highly recom­ mended to all Dave's followers. Geno Pitney “Meets the fair


young ladies of Folkland” on LP United Artists ULP 1063—a really delightful album.


WEBSTERS THE ELECTRICIANS


8 MARKET PLACE CLITHEROE SHOWROOMS: TEL. CLITHEROE 103 ;


Mr. Fairburn, Manager’s Residence: Tel.: Clitheroe lllO. Mr. Whitehead, Electrical Foreman’s Residence: Tel.: Whallcy 3223


i 3 width fittings in Country Tan Side or Chcrrv Red Side.


Child's 8—5J. %


i . A f


* D. LORD & SON


5 MOOR LANE, CUTHEROE Telephone Clitheroe 488


WASHER


TWIN TUB


★ * 59 GNS. WITH 2 KW HEATER WHICH BOILS.


STAINLESS STEEL TUB TAKING UP TO h LBS. CLOTHES.


★ EXCLUSIVE HOOVER PULSATOR ACTION GETS CLOTHES REALLY CLEAN.


CAN BE PURCHASED FROM


as low as 8/3 WEEKLY (3 YEARS TO PAY) DEPOSI T £6 4s. Od.


ON OUR LOW INTEREST TERMS WITH ONLY 5°o PER ANNUM INTEREST CHARGES. YOUR OLD WASHER CAN BE TAKEN IN PART- EXCHANGE AND WE WILL GLADLY QUOTE YOU-WITHOUT ANY OBLIGATION WHAT­ SOEVER.


If you buy your Hotpoint Washer


Hotpoint Empress Wringer Model


63 gns


3 YEAR TERMS Deposit £6 13s.0d.


8/10 weekly


FREE— Luxury Ironing Table NOW


Midpoint Twin Six Hotpoint Supemiatic Twin-Tub Type Twin-Tub Model


64 gns 8/11 weekly IA gns


3 YEAR TERMS 3 YEAR TERMS Deposit £6 I5s. Od. Deposit £7 18s. Od.


10/6 weekly NEW PHILIPS TAPE RECORDER


* TAKES 7" REELS * TWO SPEED * 4 TRACK ONLY 39 GNS. OR £4 4s. Od. DEPOSIT AND 6/2 WEEKLY—FOR 3 YEARS


H.M.V. TAPE RECORDER * TWO SPEED * 4 TRACK — 36 GNS. MAGNAVOX TAPE RECORDER ★ 3 SPEED ★ 4 TRACK * T SPOOLS - 49 GNS.


DCMT NEW BUS,L ECKO— K.B. n t n l PHILIPS DE LUXE 19" 625/405 LINES DUAL STANDARD TELEVISIONS


FROM 91- WEEKLY


FREE 13 WEEKS VIEWING: FREE SERVICE; FREE LEGS — ENQUIRE NOW


9 5


r


• *’ y v '■’■***' Whit Monday's impressive ceremony


The Clilheroe Advertiser &. Times, May - 1964 Forecast—funshine


^ J L cxaM s ' s a n d a l s '


i Clark’s Footgaugc gives I the fit they need—not | just length-wise, but all I round . . . width and girth i as well.


I here arc several width linings to each


half-si/c in ihese airy, buoyant sandals.


u


JOYANCE 19/11-36/11 4 width fittings in Brown Grain or Country Tan Side. Choice of width linings in Chert v Red Side or While Niihnel Infants 6—Teens X


c- Ta


it


sy 10


rt it


ft ?B m A, 18


a le >e :e a


;o .d


tv :::


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10