MOVING A CHURCH.

Shannon News, 28 August 1925, Page 4

MOVING A CHURCH.

TRANSFERRED STONE BY

STONE. A village church in Lancashire is being moved stone by atone to a new site a mile and a half away (says the "Daily Chronicle."). It belongs tot the deserted village of Grane, or Haslingden Grane, through which the old highway runs from Bury to Blackburn. The new site is at Holden Wood. Fifty years ago Grane was a thriving village; to-day it is a place of ruins and memories, with roofless mills, an old hall standing empty, and rows of tenanlless houses falling to pieces. This is due to the progress of neighbouring towns. The Bury and District Water Board acquired the village about 30 years ago for reservoirs, and eventually the whole of the property except the parish church and the Wesleyan chapel passed into their possession. The local mills were rebuilt at Haslingden, and the workpeople moved too. ! Grane people h»v e only recently decided to take their church awaj from the deserted village, A mlssior lhall was built at Holden Wood; vices were held, there at night and a? the parish church in the morning. The parishioners—nearly all milt workers have now raised over £IBOO towards the £6OOO it is estimated the removal will cost. The last service held in the church was conducted by the Bishop of Manchester, when he spoke words of encouragement to the people who had undertaken such a hugs task. It is probable that the final cost of the removal will be nearer £BOOO than £6OOO. But, says the vicar, it will cost less to remove the old church than to build a new one.

Though built in 1868, it did not become a parish church until 1883, only a few years before the turning-out of the village began. The original cost was £3OOO. The building is quite handsome for its period, and has one ancient: relic, a bell said to have come from Whalley Abbey, a Cistercian house destroyed under Henry VIII. The builders are at work moving ■ the pews and fittings to ined schoolroom across the road, where they will be kept until the rejected church is ready for them. This is probably the last use to which tne I old schoolroom will ever be put. There are no people left in Grane itself to go to church, but old' people bo:n in Grane tell tales of the illicit whiskey still for which Grane was o-.ice notorious, and the cock-pit is •yet to be found by those wh <> know where to look for it, A century ago the blacksmith of Grane was haled before the Magistrate for forging pike heads intended to avenge the "field of Peterloo."