St. John the Divine Church

The chapel at HOLME was probably built in the time of Henry VIII,and at the Reformation fell into disuse,being considered the property of the Whitaker family. What endowment had belonged to it was confiscated by Edward VI and the chapel remained without a minister, except under the Commonwealth, for nearly 200 years, though about 1717 Bishop Gastrell recorded that the curate of Burnley preached there once a quarter. A curate was licensed in 1742 and by the gifts of various benefactors, including Dr. Whitaker, the historian,sometime incumbent of this family chapel, an endowment was provided, and the net value is now £263 a year.

The old chapel which stood near the road at the lower end of the graveyard was pulled down in 1788,and the present church of St. John the Divine erected in the same year on higher ground and consecrated in 1794. It is a plain stone structure, in plan a rectangle 62ft. 6in. long internally by 28ft. wide,built of rough square chiselled stones with dressed quoins at the angles. At the west end is anoctagonal stone cupola springing from a square base;and the west elevation has some architectural merit,the doorway being flanked by Tuscan columns supporting a pedimented head, the whole under alofty semicircular arch. The windows are roundheaded and at the west end in two tiers, the upper ones lighting a west gallery.

The old east window was of three lights divided by two columns carrying architrave, frieze and cornice over the side lights, and with a semicircular head springing from the level of the cornice over thecentral wider light, but this window was removed in 1897, when a new chancel 25ft. by 19ft. with vestry on the north side was added, and the columns are now at each side of a gate at the west end of the building.

From: 'Townships: Cliviger', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6 (1911), pp. 478-487. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53156 Date accessed: 08 September 2012.