THIS contented customer raises a smile more than a century after she got one herself from the false teeth supplied by the Blackburn dentist in whose effusive advertisement she appeared.

The advert was featured in the souvenir brochure of the Grand Bazaar held to raise funds for the "new" St Alban's Church in Blackburn, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of its opening next month.

The event was held over five days at the town's Exchange Hall -- the home today of the Apollo Cinema complex -- and contributed nearly £4,000 towards the £20,000 cost of the giant church at Larkhill, which was then just seven weeks from completion.

But though the sum collected was vast -- the equivalent today of £225,280 -- it evidently also included revenue from other of the parish's fund-raising endeavours. For, reporting on the amount collected after the first two days of the bazaar, the Northern Daily Telegraph said that "including donations and results of previous efforts," the total was a little over £2,100.

Even so, a considerable contribution came directly the bazaar, which featured several stalls, performances by the Catholic Concert Party, the Blackburn Strauss Orchestra and songs and dances by the girls of St Alban's and a rifle range -- at which the brochure urged visitors to practise if they wanted to be well protected against burglars.

For, as the total passed £2,500, the NDT said proceeds of the previous day at the bazaar were a hefty £363 -- a sum equal to more than £20,444 today.

Yet, even fund-raising on such a grand scale was not sufficient for the new church -- the fourth St Alban's since the parish was begun in upstairs rooms above a pair of cottages in town-centre Chapel Street in 1773 -- to be completed as originally envisaged, with a massive tower and spire, as shown in this artist's impression (left).

For though the 1901 St Alban's was the mother church of Roman Catholicism in Blackburn and, as the NDT commented, its "local cathedral," it did not acquire a tower until 60 years later. And as the 1973 picture (left) shows, the church never got the splendid spire that was initially contemplated. Indeed, even as the giant bazaar was planned, the parish had accepted that there would not be enough money for the tower and spire unless, as the brochure -- kindly lent to Looking Back by Whalley reader Mr John Fleming -- remarked "some generous benefactor comes to the rescue."

Then, parishioners were still making do with worship in St Alban's Hall, which had been converted into a temporary church following the demolition three and a half years earlier of the brick-built third St Alban's (pictured right) which was built at Larkhill in 1826 and gained its tower in 1883.

But although the "new" St Alban's was less grand than planned and some details of the interior still needed to be finished, when it opened on December 8, 1901, before a crowded congregation, the NDT agreed it was "magnificent."