St John the Evangelist Church, Higham Hall Road, Higham, Lancashire: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

Following the submission of an application to construct an extension St John the Evangelist Church, Higham Hall Road, Higham, Lancashire, Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out a heritage assessment for the property, which is Grade II Listed. This was intended to provide suitable information about the history of the building and site so that a better understanding of its development could be obtained, which could then be used to assess its significance and the likely impact of the proposals. It is known that the church was constructed between 1872 and probably 1876 within part of a larger open field as a chapel ease for Padiham, in order to accommodate the growing population in Higham. This had been served already to some extent by the local Wesleyan ministry, but a National School was built on a piece of land adjoining the church site in 1834 and was initially used for services. St John's was designed by the architect William Waddington and constructed by a range of local contractors, with a remarkable amount of archive material detailing the various elements of building it. It was subject to a range of later improvements, first to the heating, and later to the roof and flooring, with a detailed condition report produced in 1952. A consultation of the Historic Environment Record revealed no known sites of archaeological interest nearby, with the exception of the church itself. It also has a Grade II Listed war memorial immediately to the south and a Grade II Listed former National School to the west, with all three located within the Conservation Area for Higham. A site visit revealed that the building comprises a relatively simple structure with projecting sections to the north and south, bounded by a lawn and wall on the south side and with a rectangular plot containing the graveyard to the north. The area of the proposed extension is within a levelled section forming a footpath/lawn along the north side of the church, between it and the graveyard to the north. The church is significant in itself as a listed building and inside the Conservation Area, but there are no known remains of archaeological interest nearby and the proposals are unlikely to affect any archaeological deposits. No further work is therefore recommended.