Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/447

 Sixty-four years from the date of its erection this church was also pulled down, having become unable to accommodate the increasing influxes of visitors during the summer; and on the 20th of March, 1834, the foundation stone of the existing pile was laid by the late Thomas Clifton, esq., of Lytham Hall, who contributed £500 towards the cost of the building. Mrs. Fisher, the widow of a local physician, contributed £300, and the subscriptions for the necessary work were further augmented by a grant from the Church Building and Extension Society. The church, which comprises nave, side aisles, chancel, and embattled tower, contains the monuments of the Cliftons already enumerated, and three additional marbles, one of which, at the entrance to the chancel, records that "in the family vault near this place lies the body of Hetty, daughter of Pelegrine Treves, esq., and widow of the late Thomas Clifton, esq., of Clifton and Lytham; she died on the 4th of June, 1864, aged 68 years. The other attached to the opposite side of the entrance is in memoriam of "Thomas Clifton (eldest son of John Clifton, esq., by Elizabeth, his wife) of Clifton and Lytham, who died 17th February, 1851, aged 63 years"; whilst the third, in the chancel itself, is to the memory of "John Clifton, of Lytham, esq., who departed this life on the 25th of March, 1832, aged 68 years. Requiescat in Pace." Against the wall of the south side aisle is a tablet surmounted by a cross and inscribed thus:—"In memory of Richard Barton Robinson, born July 28: A: D: 1804, died August 9: A: D: 1872, vicar of Lytham for 36 years. This cross is gratefully erected by his parishioners, A.D. 1875." A similar tablet in the north aisle is erected to the "memory of Edward and Sarah Jane Houghton, by their only surviving son. E. H. born April 23: 1807: died December 15: 1869. S. J. H. born September 26: 1803: died April 21: 1872." The east window, beautifully emblazoned, "is dedicated by her friends and neighbours, to the memory of Ellen Fisher," born 1759, died 1837. Similar windows, north and south, in the chancel, were given by Thomas Clifton, esq., in 1845, also a second, on the south side, by Lady Eleanor Cecily Clifton, in 1871. The north side aisle contains six handsome windows inserted respectively to the memories of Anne Shepherd Birley, died 1872; James Fair, died 1871, by J. T. Clifton, esq.; Sarah Agnes, wife of W. C. Dowding, clerk, M.A., died 1869, by