Known locally as "the church on the hill", there was only one way to reach it, that was from the bottom of Pritchard Street along the bottom end of what we now know as Sunny Bank Road, then it was along the track through the farmyard and on up the track again.

It took a fair amount of resilience to belong to the Church of the Saviour in those early days. Imagine what it must have been like on a cold, stormy winter's night, trudging along up a muddy path. Can you imagine what a state everyone's shoes would be in by the time they got there, to say nothing of the hems of the women's clothes? The early 1900s was still the era for long clothes for women. It was only in later years that a cinder path was laid and oil lamps were taken out to light the way.

There was no water supply. Whenever water was needed it had to be carried either from the farm or by the congregation from their own homes. Water for the boiler had to be carried and passed through a window in a bucket. Brewing up for a cup of tea was not such a simple task as it sounds.

You also needed to be quite strong too as a fair amount of humping furniture was involved. After the morning service the forms had to be re-arranged for afternoon Sunday School and then re-arranged again afterwards ready for the evening service.

In spite of the lack of water supply in bad weather the boiler house always had plenty as it was frequently flooded. This was caused by a stream coming from the nearby fields but seemed impossible to trace and cure. Many attempts were made and much money spent, but to no avail, the flooding continued.

In 1904 church attendance generally was running at 14% of the population. Christ Church recording 1,550 persons out of a parish population of 11,200 attending church on Sunday.

By 1905 Longshaw centred around Pritchard Street, Sunny Bank Road (at this point it was still known as Longshaw Lane) and the Infirmary. Marlton Road was known as Geraldine Street.

By 1910 the Church of the Saviour was on the map. Still completely surrounded by fields, the nearest houses were in Abbotsford Avenue. The bottom parts of Park Lee Road and Lynthorpe were built and the Blackburn Hospital for Infectious Diseases was on Longshaw Lane (now Park Lee Road). Queens Park Hospital was then Blackburn Union Workhouse.

Roads were being improved, but not the road to the church. There was some other building work going on in close proximity to the church but alas they were only hen pens. There were still no other houses near the church and for many years services were conducted to the extraneous sounds of cattle, hens and mowing machines.

Originally built to accommodate 150 the church was served faithfully by the clergy, vicars and curates, from Christ Church.

In the meantime a nucleus of faithful, stalwart workers was being built up. The congregation worked very hard to reduce the debt on the church by opening up their homes to hold social evenings. These were very successful in bringing people together in a united effort to pay off the debt.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing. Towards the end of its first decade when the vicar at Christ Church left to take up a quieter, less demanding parish because of ill-health, it caused a time of real anxiety as the young church continued with one of the curates taking over responsibility for the parish.