The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn in the County of -- Lancashire --

The following is extracted from "History of Blackburn" by Wm Alexander Abram, published in 1877

Blackburn is an ancient parish, the foundation of the Church of Blackburn as centre of a parish detached from Whalley occured probably prior to the Norman Conquest.

It is also further written in an ancient manuscript that the primitive rectors of Blackburn, as of Whalley, were lords,, who married and transmitted the rectory to their heirs as inheritance along with the secular estate.

There was an old Church structure, much updated in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The last service was held in this old Parish Church on Sunday, November 10th, 1819, and the Church was demolished in the course of the year following (The old Tower was left standing until the year 1870); its replacement by a new edifice having become imperative both on account of its dilapidation and of its inadequacy for the reception of the congregation of the Mother Church. A special Act of Parliament, passed June 14th, 1819, empowered a body of trustees to raze the old fabric and to obtain a sum of £15,000 by a general parish rate to defray the cost of a new Church. The corner-stone of the new Church was laid by Vicar T. D, Whitaker, September 2nd, 1820. Mr. John Palmer was appointed architect. The building had made some progress by 1823, when the sum realised by the first special Church rate being expended, a further rate was levied. A second Act of Parliament had to be obtained in 1824, giving the trustees power to raise an additional £18,000 by means of a rate. The consecration of the Church by the Bishop of Chester took place September 13th, 1826. The cost of the fabric was £25,979 11s. 9d. ; organ £850; expenses of Acts of Parliament £1,279 ; and the incidental expenditure in diverting the river for extension of the church-yard, in purchasing lands and in. compensation for the grammar school, was upwards of £10,000. A third rate was levied in 1827 to obtain the cost of lighting and warming the church. On January 6th, 1831, during morning service, the roof of the church took fire through some defect in the flue, and was entirely destroyed, and other damage was done, repaired at a cost of £2,500.