Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/207

 same then lately stood, near to the place where the Churchwardens' seat was then lately situate, as it would greatly tend to the conformity of the said Church and to the benefit and advantage of the Inhabitants of the said Parish, and also that they might have liberty to sell and dispose of the seats to be contained in the said intended side Galleries, to such persons within the said Parish as should stand most in need thereof, to reimburse them-*selves the charges and expenses they would be necessarily put to in building the said intended gallaries and making the alterations aforesaid."

The present edifice is of stone, plain but commodious, and comprises a chancel, body, and embattled tower, with buttresses supporting each corner. Formerly a small shed stood on one side of the tower, and was used as a repository for the sculls and other osseous relics of humanity, which were unearthed during the process of making fresh graves; this house was pulled down some years ago, and its numerous treasures returned to the ground at the south-east corner of the yard. The chancel now standing was erected eight years since, mainly through the exertions of the Rev. Thomas Clarke, M.A., the vicar, who died in 1869. On the exterior of the building, over a door at the south-east corner of the body is the inscription:—Insignia Rici Fleetwood Ari Hujus Eccliæ Patroni Ann Dni 1699"; above which is a circumscribed uneven space formerly occupied by the arms of the Fleetwood family. Within the church the quarterings of the Heskeths and Fleetwoods are hung against the walls in frames. At the west end of the building there is a wooden panel into which the following names have been cut:—

Rich. Dickson. Rich. Willson. John Hull. Rich. Willson. John Woodhouse, churchwardens, 1730,

From the way in which the holders of similiar offices are arranged at present it is surmised that these gentlemen respectively represented the townships of

Poulton. Carleton. Hardhorn. Thornton. Marton.

On the south side of the church is a mural tablet to the memory of the Rev. Richard Buck, M.A., of Agecroft Hall, Pendlebury,