REGARDING your article (LET, April 30) on the tragic fire at The Holme, Cliviger, and the windows there, said to have belonged to the old Parish Church of Blackburn, in the History of Whalley by the Rev T D Whitaker there is an explanation of the source of the painted glass erected in the staircase window at the Holme.

A footnote, written by Dr Whitaker's second son, the Rev Robert Howell Whitaker, born in 1800 and also vicar of Whalley, says he had questioned Richard Eatough, a groundsman of Whalley Abbey for Lord Howe, the then owner.

Robert Nowell Whitaker was brought up at The Holme. He would have remembered the windows being erected in the staircase by his father and where the glass had come from.

To confirm the source, Richard Eatough recounted that the glass had been recovered from the River Calder at Whalley Abbey, after a flooding of the river. This first-hand account dismisses the Blackburn claim.

The glass of Blackburn Parish Church has always been a puzzle, but I suspect some was reglazed into the other churches of the parish and into the greater houses of the local gentry of that age.

Richard Eatough also confirms that some of the Whalley glass was incorporated into the windows of Langho church, which I have examined.

Abram's History of Blackburn gives an account of the building of the new Parish Church at Blackburn, but makes no reference to the fate of the ancient woodwork or fittings of the demolished old edifice.

Dr Whitaker was at the time (1818) also vicar of Blackburn and it would be expected that as an antiquary he would have taken a great interest in the demolition of the old church.

But it must be remembered that he was nearing the end of his life and his youthful enthusiasms for preserving antiquities must have been waning.

This historical problem remains unsolved at the present time but further research, hopefully, will give us the answers.

JOHN S CHADWICK, Moor Edge, Whalley.