St Hubert's Church, Dunsop Bridge

St Hubert’s Roman Catholic church is a surprising little addition to the lane leading to Lancaster from Clitheroe which wends its way through Bowland. Not far from the village of Dunsop Bridge, one of the contenders for the title of ‘Centre of Britain’, it remains a testament to the ‘old faith’s’ persistence and tenacity in these isolated and remote hills. It is a typically Victorian, Romanist chapel, awash with statues, images, coloured paint and gold trim, and an altar cloth praising Mary. Despite the rich colours, the insides are essentially rather dark.  

St. Hubert’s was built to the design of Edward Pugin, the famous nineteenth-century church architect, and paid for with the winnings of the racehorse Kettledrum owned by Colonel Charles Towneley of Towneley Hall, Burnley, in the 1861 Epsom Derby. The nonconformists of Martin Top would be appalled that such ill-gotten gains should be spent on a place of worship, but then they might have roiled their eyes when they learned it was intended for Catholic worship.

The landed classes have always had a rather relaxed attitude to financial ethics and the management of money. Furthermore, there is always something of a gamble about non-Christian religions and non-evangelical forms of Christianity:

“Have I done enough to warrant a place in paradise?”, the Muslim asks.

“Have I done enough to escape the hottest flames of purgatory?” asks the Catholic.  

“Is God just as nice, liberal and tolerant as I have spent my life proclaiming?” ponders the theological liberal.

The true Christian need not fear the odds, calculate the payment nor hope for the best. If Christ has paid our debt in full, we are redeemed, and as fit for heaven as Adam unsullied.

These things have I written unto you, that believe in the name of that Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the Name of that Son of God. 1 John 5:13, Geneva Bible