BLACKBURN ROYAL INFIRMARY

WAR MEMORIAL WING - STAINED GLASS WINDOWS

The History

These windows were originally erected in 1928 within the newly opened War Memorial Wing of the Blackburn and East Lancashire Royal Infirmary. The octagonal entrance hall to the new wing contained eight windows that illustrated the coats of arms of Blackburn and the surrounding towns and boroughs of Darwen, Accrington, Clitheroe, Rishton, Great Harwood, Church and Oswaldtwistle.

In their Original setting the windows formed part of a major First World War memorial, admired and valued by both the public and staff of the hospital. They indicated the towns of East Lancashire which had sent men to the war and emphasized the role of the hospital as a place of healing and reconciliation for those who returned injured.

The windows were removed from Blackburn Royal Infirmary following its closure in 2006, carefully restored and reconstructed by 'Martha Henry' a local Architectural and Decorative Stained Glass Artist and eected in this place as an ongoing memorial.

The Windows

Coloured glass motifs are set in rectangular colourless fine textured cathedral glass quarries enclosed by a pale green antique textured border around the window edges. The windows each have set within tem, the coat of arms of one town with the name of the town painted on a ribbon scroll below. Originally, each window was in 2 parts. These have now been carefully combined to retain the key features of each, within one window.

The shield within the Oswaldtwistle window was missing its original coat of arms, however, following some local research the original coat of arms has been newly made and included within the restored window. As an added feature, a depiction of James Hargreaves' 'Spinning Jenny' as depicted on the mayoral chain has also been incorporated at the foot of the coat of arms.

Re-dedication and Unveilling

The restored windows were re-dedicated on 24 October 2008 by Canon Ronnie Clark, Hospital Chaplain and officially unveiled by Marie Burnham, Chief Executive of the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, in the presence of Mayoral and other Civic Leaders representing each of the eight towns and boroughs.