Mary’s blog for Thursday

Today we did a lot, but my blog will focus on our visit to the Holy Trinity Church at Millom, next to the castle that the Huddlestons owned and ran for several centuries.  We saw the church on our first trip, but we couldn’t get inside.  Today we were ushered inside by a church warden, and we saw the impact the Huddlestons have had on this church community.  The right side of the church is known as the Huddleston aisle.  The family seems to have contributed to the stained glass windows, which are beautiful – at least those which Cromwell’s  guns did not destroy.  The church bore a lot of damage from the invasion, which also destroyed much of the castle.  We found the graves of several generations of Huddlestons inside the church, mostly from the 13^th to the 15^th century.  Of course, no Huddleston was there after the attacks.  In the recent past, at least one Huddleston is mentioned – on a plaque with the names of those who died in World War I.  Overall, the visit to the church was a moving experience.  The Huddlestun coat of arms is visible in our “corner” and the church history gives great kudos to the family for their service to the church.  It is still a practicing church, with services weekly and lots of other activities as well.  This is all quite different from our experience 8 years ago, something we attribute to the new vicar.  Pictures will show many of these items for your consideration.  

We are now in Lancashire, in the little town of Burscough, on the trail of the Blackledges.  Tomorrow we’ll see the church in Ormskirk where many are buried.  We’ll let you know what we find there!

Mary