Ribble Valley
The Ribble Valley in eastern Lancashire, England, is an important location in the early years of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Villages in the valley, including Chatburn, Clitheroe, Downham, and Rimington, are where early Latter-day Saints preached the gospel and baptized numerous converts.
Elder Heber C. Kimball and his companions (Orson Hyde, Joseph Fielding, Isaac Russell, Willard Richards, John Goodson, and John Snider) arrived in Liverpool, England, in July 1837 and felt prompted to travel 30 miles to Preston. There they preached in the Vauxhall Chapel. Their labors extended west to the towns and villages of the Ribble Valley.
The first nine baptisms in England occurred on July 30 in the River Ribble. More soon followed, with nearly fifty individuals converted by August 6. The Preston Ward is the Church’s oldest continuing congregation.
Elder Kimball served two missions in this area of Great Britain. Many of his converts, as well as tens of thousands of others, departed from Liverpool between 1840 and 1860 to join the body of the Saints in America.
In 1987, President Gordon B. Hinckley, who served as a missionary in the area, dedicated a monument in Avenham Park, near the River Ribble, as part of the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Church in the British Isles.
