The chapel was built in the sixteenth century, according to local tradition by or shortly after 1540, as believed to be built from the ruins of Whalley Abbey. Gastrell noted that under James II Mr Walmesley, a catholic, seized the chapel, but the then Vicar of Blackburn petitioned the King, and upon referral to Judge Jeffreys the chapel was restored to the Vicar. Gastrell, Notitia Cestrienses, II.ii, 286-7.