Providence Methodist Church came into being as the result of a small band of workers coming over the hill from Bacup and settling at Dunnockshaw in 1844. Amongst these was Richard Bridge who started a cotton manufacturing business at Dunnockshaw Mill. It was the success of this venture which enabled him to donate £150 to start the fund to build the church. Building started early in 1846 on a church which could hold about three hundred people and by the time it open later in the year had cost £800 to build.

Within twenty-five years of it's erection it became apparent the building was to small for the rapidly growing population in the villages of Loveclough and Dunnockshaw. Two hundred square yards of land adjoining the old church was bought and on Good Friday 1871 the foundation stone of the new church with a seating capacity of eight hundred was laid by the Rev. John Garside, superintendent of the Burnley Methodist Circuit.

By the late nineteen fifties the Church was in need of extensive repairs, but with falling attendances and the huge cost required to do the work it was decided to closed its doors for the last time after the Anniversary Service on the 27th of August 1961 and the Church was demolished in 1967.

Listed below are the registers available at Lancashire Records Office, Preston

Baptisms 1874 - 1954
Marriages 1910 - 1957
The baptism register is available on microfilm at Rawtenstall Library - Local Studies Dept.
The Marriage Register is held at Lancashire Records Office.

Rossendale Family History Society and Rawtenstall Library have:

a printed and indexed copy of the Baptism Register
a printed and indexed copy of the Burial/Grave Register
a printed and indexed copy of the Monument Inscriptions
a copy of the 1946 Centenary Anniversary booklet.

War Memorial