The Parish of Blawith in the County of -- Lancashire --

The Blawith Church of St John the Baptist, Church of England, was founded in 1577. The current church was opened in 1863 replacing the original one, the ruins of which still exist on the other side of the road.

Blawith Church, a small but very neat edifice, opened for Divine service in 1863. It was erected at a cost of £1,600, and contains 171 sittings, all of which are free. The style is Gothic, and in the beautiful stained glass window in the chancel are depicted the Ascension, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi. It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and superseded the old dilapidated chapel which stands a few yards distant, and was in existence as early as the year 1577.

In 1715 the inhabitants elected a young man to be reader and schoolmaster, and petitioned Bishop Gastrell to license him, though he was under the canonical age. In reference to this request the bishop writes in his Journal:--“The inhabitants pretend to the right of electing their own curate.” The salary at that time was £1 a year.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Duke of Buccleuch and in the incumbancy of the Rev. John Ashburner, who resides in a neat manse called Meadow Lodge, erected in 1519 by the late incumbent, but purchased by the patron in 1579, and presented to the living for a paronage-house.

The benefice has received several grants from Queen Anne’s Bounty, most of which was laid out in purchase of land, which, with other sums in the hands of the Bounty Board and Ecclesiastical Commissioners, makes the living worth £155 per annum.

- From: Mannex’s Directory of Furness & Cartmel, 1882.

Entered here 29 November 2005 by Lynn Ransom Burton.