St Chad’s has six hatchments - no other church in Lancashire has more. A hatchment, often made of wood and canvas (St Chad’s are all wood) showed the arms of a deceased person. It would be suspended over the front door of the deceased’s house for 6 to 12 months, after which it was moved to inside the parish church. Hatchments were used from the 17th to 19th centuries The last recorded use of a hatchment was when one was hung in a London street in 1928. The hatchments in St Chad’s show the arms of various members pf the Fleetwood and Hesketh families.For many years they were stored in the church tower but were retrieved and re-hung on the walls in the 1950s. However during the nineteenth century they had been varnished and had become very dark. Pat Allois cleaned and renovated all six hatchments and the Royal coat of arms in 1994 - the photographs show Pat and two churchwardens returning the first of the newly cleaned hatchments to St Chad’s.
In 2008 Pat Allois cleaned and renovated this memorial to members of the Harrison family. It stands on the north wall immediately opposite the south door.Some members of the Harrison family left Poulton and moved to Horncastle in Lincolnshire.. Click here for more information about the Harrisons
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The Royal Coat of Arms was repainted in 1818 by Thomas Barrow of Great Eccleston. Barrow was a well known portrait painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy. It cost 8 guineas, including carting to and from Poulton in 1818.
