CHURCH WEDDINGS

If you are planning a wedding and prefer a traditional church ceremony, the Ribble Valley has a number of beautiful, historic churches. Photography: Kerry Woods Photography & Kirsten Platt

A church wedding not only adds a spiritual dimension to your marriage, but can blend ancient tradition with present day vows, made in front of family and close friends.

Your wedding can be made personal, memorable and meaningful and beautiful and here in the Ribble Valley we have some churches that offer outstanding beauty.

Intimate or grand, we have some of the nation’s most stunning wedding venues, many being listed buildings.
Offering centuries of history, St Andrew’s Church in Slaidburn dates from about 1450. Standing at the southerly entrance to the village, it is an architecturally interesting, Grade I listed building with fine interior woodwork including some unusual, separately listed pews and one of the few triple deck pulpits in the country. The amber stone came from the surrounding fells and the church is noted for its intricate, quality woodwork.

In the deanery of Bowland, the archdeaconry of Craven, and the Diocese of Leeds, alterations were made to St Andrew’s in the 17th century with the east wall being rebuilt in 1866. The church is constructed in sandstone, and in the churchyard is a war grave of a Duke of Wellington’s regiment soldier.

Grindleton also boasts an ancient church – St Ambrose Church named after St Ambrose of Milan, the patron saint of bee-keepers, of which there are still many as the village is surrounded by damson trees. The church is also constructed of sandstone and on the south wall of the chancel is a three-light window and the east window has four lights.

Over the centuries Grindleton has had a church on different sites to the one seen today. In the early 1700s a church was built high above the present village high on the fellside. Nothing remains of it except the foundation stone, which was built into the gateway of the present church and the font, which lies outside the main door. The present church was opened in 1805, but nothing remains of the box pews or the huge pulpit which went in the remodelling of 1895 when the choir stalls and altar were placed in a newly extended chancel.

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