Bispham Parish Church facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bispham Parish Church |
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| All Hallows Church, Bispham | |
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| Location | Bispham, Blackpool |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| History | |
| Consecrated | 1883 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Parish church |
| Designated | Grade II listed |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Bispham |
| Archdeaconry | Lancaster |
| Diocese | Blackburn |
Bispham Parish Church, also known as All Hallows Church, is a very old and important Church of England church. You can find it in Bispham, which is part of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It's often called the Mother Church of Blackpool because it was the main place of worship in the area for a long time.
The church is a Grade II Listed Building. This means it's a special building with historical importance. The church you see today is the third one built on this exact spot. It was finished in 1883. Before 1821, Bispham Parish Church was the only church in the whole Blackpool area.
Contents
A Long History
The Very First Churches
The first time we hear about a church here was way back in 1189! That's when a man named Theobold Walter gave his rights to the churches of Poulton-le-Fylde and Bispham to a place called St Mary's of Lancaster.
Later, in 1345, records show that the church in Poulton and the chapel in Bispham were in bad shape. This suggests that Bispham was a smaller chapel connected to the main church in Poulton.
In 1351, after a terrible sickness called the Black Death had spread, church officials visited Bispham. They wanted to see if enough people lived there to keep the chapel going. Luckily, they decided to keep the chapel and its land.
Blackpool's First Mention
The name "Blackpool" first appeared in the records of Bispham Parish Church in 1602. It was written down when a child from a family living "on the bank of the Black Pool" was christened (baptized) there.
The Old Red Church
Records from the 1700s describe an older church made of red sandstone. It had a special roof with two peaks and was supported by pillars inside. There was a separate area for the altar, and the main part of the church had dark oak benches. It also had three tall, narrow windows at the back and a short tower at the front.
In 1773, the pillars were thought to be unsafe, so they were taken out, and the building was made taller. But by the mid-1800s, the church was in danger of falling down.
Building the Current Church
Because it was so old and unsafe, the church had to be taken down in 1883. A brand new church, made of limestone, was built on the very same spot.
While they were rebuilding, workers found some amazing old pieces! They discovered a Saxon piscina (a stone basin used for washing sacred vessels) and a Norman sandstone arch. This arch had cool zigzag carvings and pictures of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Some of these Zodiac signs, like Taurus, Cancer, and Virgo, were found during the digging. These discoveries inspired the carvings you can see today over the inner south doorway, which include pieces of the old Norman stone.
The current church has a long main hall (called a nave) with five sections. It also has a chancel (the area around the altar) with side sections and a tower on the southwest side. Its style is simple, like early English churches.
What's in the Churchyard?
The churchyard is the area around the church where people are buried. It holds the graves of many people who died in shipwrecks. This includes the captain and crew of a ship called the Favourite, which sank off Blackpool in 1865. There are also graves for passengers from the Ocean Monarch, a ship that caught fire in the Irish Sea in 1848.
A famous actress named Violet Carson is also remembered here. She lived in Bispham and passed away in 1983. She was well-known for playing the character Ena Sharples in the TV show Coronation Street from 1960 to 1980.
The Old Sundial
In the churchyard, you can also find an old sundial. It sits on a stone pole about one meter tall. This sundial is also a Grade II Listed Building, just like the church. People believe it might have been the base of an even older cross.
Remembering Heroes
The churchyard also contains special graves called war graves. These are for service personnel who died during wars. There are graves for four people from World War I and nine people from World War II buried here.
