Blackburn Cathedral

Blackburn Cathedral stands in the centre of Blackburn, Lancashire, on ground used for Christian worship for more than a thousand years. The first stone church was built in Norman times, though only fragments survived into the 19th century when the whole building was rebuilt. In 1926 the parish church became the cathedral of the new Diocese of Blackburn and work began to enlarge it. Architects John Palmer, William Forsyth and Laurence King each shaped the cathedral across the decades. The building blends late-Georgian Gothic Revival style with modern additions.

The cathedral is worth visiting for its layered history and the craftsmen who worked on it. Palmer’s west tower and aisle windows still dominate the exterior. Forsyth planned a grand crossing tower that was never finished after wartime shortages. King completed the east end in the 1960s with a concrete lantern and the intimate Jesus Chapel. Brian Lowe rebuilt the lantern in stone in 1999 after concrete began to fail. A 2001 Millennium sculpture by Mark Jalland and a 2009 carved flagpole by Mark Bridges add modern art to the site.

Inside, visitors find Palmer’s nave with its clerestory and battlements still intact. The octagonal lantern above the crossing brings light to the sanctuary below. The Jesus Chapel and the smaller Chapel of St Martin of Tours host daily services. The new Cathedral Court includes a cloister, library and refectory built in the 21st century. Outside, the east wall carries Jalland’s glowing fibre-optic disc, The Healing of the Nations. The western tower’s gilded mitre finial marks the cathedral’s continuing role in royal and civic life.