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To the cradle of the Restoration in England

To the cradle of the Restoration in England

Last updated on: May 11, 2026 at 5:02 pm by Dan Peterson

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To the cradle of the Restoration in England 2026-05-11T17:02:07-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The first Latter-day Saint baptisms in England were performed in the River Ribble, in Lancashire. In this Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph, a mist lies over the Ribble Valley. Beyond that mist stands Pendle Hill.

Episode 16 of Becoming Brigham is now up online: “Who was more loyal, Emma Smith or Brigham Young?” Perhaps you should watch it?

The town flag of Preston, Lancashire, England, features the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God (qui tollis peccata Mundi = who taketh away the sins of the world). When Heber C. Kimball and other early Latter-day Saint missionaries first came to England, they began their preaching in Preston and its environs — and had remarkable success. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We opened the day with a multi-hour walking tour of Church historic sites in Preston, where the missionaries first arrived in 1837 and where the Church’s oldest continuously functioning congregation meets. Among other things, we walked down through Avenham Park, where an official memorial to the church pioneers is located in the Japanese Garden, to the River Ribble, where the earliest Latter-day Saint baptisms in England were performed. Amusingly, George D. Watt and Henry Clegg raced one another to be the first to receive the ordinance. (Watt, younger than Clegg by twenty years, won the race.) Having mastered nineteenth-century Pitman shorthand, George Watt went on to transcribe the speeches of Church leaders, eventually launching the Journal of Discourses. Which, as Becoming Brigham makes clear, is a bit problematic.

The first missionary lodging in England, in an iPhone photograph taken by my wife earlier today.

We visited the market square in Preston, where the earliest missionaries (including Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball) preached, and the house on the corner of Fox Street and St. Wilfrid Street, not far away, where they first lodged. It was long empty and derelict, but now, appropriately enough, it’s become a tattoo parlor that its occupants have jestingly (blithely and jadedly) dubbed “The Devil’s House.” The title alludes to a truly remarkable bit of Latter-day Saint history: See Peter Fagg’s article “A Satanic Attack on the First Missionaries in Preston, England.” The young Gordon B. Hinckley also preached in Preston’s market square, and we visited the house in which he was living when, deeply discouraged, he wrote to his father that he was wasting his time and his father’s money and that he should just come home. His father’s response was that he should forget about himself and get to work. President Hinckley later described that as a pivotal moment in his life.

The first Latter-day Saint baptisms in the United Kingdom were performed in the River Ribble, near Preston, Lancashire. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We then drove up the Ribble Valley, through the town of Chatburn to the picture-perfect village of Downham. Elder Kimball was told to bother with neither village, because the people in them were irreligious and godless. He went anyway and he had phenomenal success there.

While walking in the village, we encountered Lt. Col. The Hon. Ralph Christopher Assheton (pronounced like Ashton), who kindly addressed us for two or three minutes. He is the current Lord Clitheroe; the Assheton family has owned the entirety of Downham and the surrounding fields and farms since 1558. A very pleasant chap, one might say. Very friendly and kind. I had met him only once before, so this was something of a treat.

For an article that I published in Meridian Magazine back in 2023, see “Did Christ Visit England?”

At the end of the village of Downham, in a photograph from my wife’s iPhone

We also visited a tree at the end of Downham, a little bit of a walk uphill from the road, to which, as a member of the Seventy and as the then area president for Great Britain, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland would repair whenever he wanted to consider and to pray about a challenging issue. It was at “Elder Holland’s Sycamore” that, he said, he received a strong answer as to the location of what is now the Preston England Temple. A large stone block has now been placed near the tree with the approval of the Asshetons (who, on the whole, have preferred not to have monuments or signs or markers in the village). Since our visit last year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has placed two plaques there: One honors President Holland while the other honors the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The second British temple is located near Preston, England
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

We finished the day with a visit to the grounds of the Preston England Temple, where we were privileged to listen to remarks from Peter Trebilcock (pronounced Tre-BILL-co), who served as the leader of the five-member design team for the temple and the large, impressive, and beautifully landscaped complex within which it sits. He recounted the remarkable story of how the proposed temple garnered support from local authorities who had initially rejected it, and he also related an interesting prior experience with President Gordon B. Hinckley. I haven’t yet watched this video, but it’s possible that it offers a similar account: “Gordon B. Hinckley & 8 Heartwarming Miracles Building The Preston Temple – Peter Trebilcock”

The Assheton family has attempted to preserve the traditional appearance of Downham. Accordingly, there are no obvious television aerials, no intrusive overhead cables, and no white or yellow lines on the (dead-end) road through the village. Which is one of the major reasons for the fact that Downham has often been used in television shows and in movies.

These items, retrieved via the Deseret News from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™, provide chilling evidence that theists will use even music to insinuate their toxic beliefs into the lives of others and to harm humanity:

“Meet the 5 guest artists to join Tabernacle Choir benefit concert at Hollywood Bowl: Donny Osmond and other acclaimed performers will join the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra for a historic benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl this June”

“How to get tickets to the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s benefit concert in the Hollywood Bowl in June: Ticket sales revenue will be donated to CARE, Helen Keller Intl and The Hunger Project”

Posted from Darwen, Lancashire, England

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