Church Kirk

St James’ Church in the district of Church near Oswaldtwistle is now redundant, sadly. A strikingly working-class area where churchgoing might be deemed a rather unusual or eccentric pastime, I presume it could not sustain a congregation and justify keeping open its doors.

For all its sense of loss and abandonment, the site has been used as a place of workshop since 642, long before Hyndburn’s factories and mills dominated the settlements and polluted the air. King Oswald allegedly camped here enroute to fight Penda of Mercia, the last pagan king, after whom Pendle Hill might be named. No trace is left of these heady days of the early medieval kingdoms, though the tower appears to come from the end of the middle ages period, the rest of the building from the early nineteenth century.

As Oswald went to fight the final Anglo-Saxon pagan ruler, with the eventually successful aim of converting all Anglia to Christ, so St James’ closure seems to depict a reversal of fortunes. Paganism creeps back in, spreading throughout the land. The old Saxon and Norse gods may not be the focus of devotion, but the demons of India and the idols of Retail certainly warrant a multitude of followers.

A. D