Monday, 31 December 2007

Daglish Corner, UpHolland

On 23 December a small ceremony took place to dedicate a memorial, quiet garden at the church of St. Thomas the Martyr, UpHolland, near Wigan in Lancashire.

The space is also known as “the Daglish corner”, and there has been a long association between the local Daglish family and the church. The dedication ceremony was attended by Richard Daglish, who writes:

“I was warmly greeted by a lay reader who is well versed in the story of Robert Daglish's early locomotive, the Yorkshire Horse, and is involved in the East Lancashire Railway (a volunteer preservation group that runs services with old stock in the Bury/Manchester area).
The church was completing its 700th anniversary celebrations since its foundation as a Benedictine monastery, and was decorated not just for Christmas but for the anniversary as well. One event had been a Christmas Tree Festival a week earlier, with 45 decorated and lit trees, entered by a range of organisations, church-based and otherwise, down the side aisles.

After the main service at which the Bishop of Warrington, David Jennings, was the guest preacher, the congregation was asked to stay in the church while the bishop, rector, lay readers, churchwardens and assorted helpers, and I left to walk to the outside area which had been cleared, paved and generally made a more welcoming space, with a good wooden bench.

A few prayers were said in rather an icy wind and we adjourned back to the church for coffee and mince pies.”
Richard learned that the building did not become the parish church until around 1880, about the same time that Robert Daglish, junior (1808-1883) contributed to the costs of building the chancel and, a little later, for a new East window. He also arranged for the remains of his parents Robert Daglish, senior (1777-1865) and his wife Margaret to be reinterred at UpHolland.

My thanks to Richard for the story and photos. Richard is the great, great, great grandson of Robert Daglish, senior.

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