Bispham Parish Church

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Bispham Parish Church, also known as All Hallows Church is a parish church located in Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, England.

Bispham Parish Church is the Mother church of Blackpool.^[1]

All Hallows Church, Bispham

The earliest reference to the church arises in the reign of Richard I, when Theobold Walter passed on his rights to the churches of Poulton and Bispham to St Mary’s of Lancaster. Another reference in 1345, from the records of the Archdiocese of Richmond, tells of the lamentable state of disrepair of both the church of Poulton and the chapel of Bispham, implying that Bispham was a chapel annexed to the parish of Poulton.

In 1351, in the aftermath of the Black Death, the Archdeacon made a visitation to ascertain whether the chapel had sufficient parishioners to make it viable as a place of worship, and also enquired of St Mary’s of Lancaster by what right they held the claim to Bispham. The Archdeacon was evidently persuaded not to sell off the chapelery and its lands.

Eighteenth century records show that there existed a church of red sandstone, with a double-gable roof, supported by oaken pillars, laid down in the centre of the nave. There was a separate chancel, black oak pews in the nave, with three lancet windows in the East end and a low tower at the West.

In 1773, the pillars were deemed unsafe and removed and the building heightened, but by the middle of the nineteenth century, the church was in danger of collapse, and in 1883 had to be demolished. A new structure of limestone was built on the same site, and during the rebuilding, were discovered a Saxon piscena and a Norman sandstone arch, with chevron carvings, enclosing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Many of the signs are weather-beaten, but the emblems of Taurus, Cancer and Virgo are recognisable.

The churchyard contains the tombs of many shipwreck victims, including the captain and crew of the Brig Favourite, which sank off Blackpool in 1865, and passengers from the Ocean Monarch, which caught fire in the Irish Sea in 1848. Also commemorated in the churchyard is the actress Violet Carson, who lived in Bispham and who died in 1983 and gained fame between 1960 and 1980 for her portrayal of Ena Sharples in Coronation Street.