A Short History
St Matthew has a proud history. Our church building dates back to 1881 when it was first handed over by Lady Eleanor Clifton as a school for the children of the Ballam area. The opening school register showed an intake of 74 pupils.
The school – also in use as a mission church – remained an integral part of the local community for close on a century before closing in the mid 1970s.
However, an extraordinary meeting unanimously decided to retain the building as a church and it became a dedicated place of worship.
The name St Matthew, directly connected to the founding fathers of the village, was assigned. No other building in the deanery was named after St Matthew. On June 29th 1985, a service was held at which the Bishop of Blackburn delivered the licence to officially give the building its name as a church.
AGM – April 3rd
Our AGM will be held on Wednesday April 3rd at 6.30pm. Everyone welcome.
Johnny makes a B line for Ballam!
One of the Fylde Coast’s most popular entertainers is heading to St Matthew to star in our next charity concert (see news page).
Improving as we go…
More improvements have been carried out at St Matthew since the dawn of 2024 – some enforced and some by choice!
Due to woodworm in the floorboards under the altar we had to enlist specialist help and lift the entire carpet. Repairs took a few weeks to complete, but things are now back to normal.
We took the opportunity to lay brand new floor coverings in both the kitchen and the vestry. Money raised from our latest concert (see News) covered the cost and the church looks much smarter as a result.
On the subject of improvements, late last year we had the whole of the front section of the church decorated and work on the remainder of the internal section will resume in a few weeks.
Unfortunately we had to dispose of the old headteacher’s desk – a survivor from the days of Ballam School – as the woodworm in it was beyond repair.