JUST one thing was missing from Darwen Library’s current exhibition of more than 30 photographs of Great War memorials from churches in the Darwen area — the memorial from St John's.

And in spite of repeated searches by local history enthusiasts among the Friends of Darwen Library, there was no sign of it.

The church, built by the fabulously rich widow Jane Brandwood, for her new husband, the Rev Philip Graham, in 1864, was one of the largest and finest in Darwen.

But in the mid-1960s, dry rot was discovered and the diocese decided that demolition was the cheaper option.

A magnificent white marble sarcophagus in Graham’s memory is believed to have been smashed in the demolition and his remains in the churchyard were reburied in Darwen old cemetery.

The white marble cross lay broken on the new grave until the Friends of Darwen Cemetery found it and arranged for it to be cleaned and repaired. Meanwhile, the large marble memorial stone to the members of St John’s who fell in the Great War went missing.

Kath Farnworth, minutes secretary of the Friends of Darwen Library, set out to find it. She had been a member of St John’s Church as a youngster when the family lived just round the corner in Turncroft Road.

Eventually, thanks to help from Anne Hull and Nora Knowles, she found it at the back of a large cupboard in St Peter’s School, just a couple of hundred yards from where the church had been.

It had replaced St John’s school, which was also demolished in the 60s.

The memorial has now been photographed and this has joined all the others on display in the library.

Kath said: “I had a personal interest in the memorial as three of my great uncles, the Greenhalgh brothers, are commemorated on it.”

Cap Cecil Bullough unveiled the memorial in 1920. It had been paid for by the Bullough family, who lived at Moorside, Astley Bank, and who ran Waterside Mill. His brother, Major C B Bullough, died in action and two other brothers survived the war.

A branch of the family founded the Howard and Bullough engineering company of Accrington.

l The Friends of Darwen Library are in touch with St Barnabas’ Church, built as a mission church of St John’s, about displaying the memorial stone there.