By 1911 the Church of the Saviour was well and truly on the map although completely surrounded by fields. Looking at an old map in the reference library and comparing it with other church sites it does seem an incongrous place to put a church.

However, to continue, the interregnum at Christ Church had left the still infant church in the care of the curate-in-charge, the Rev. W.T. Evans. With the appointment of a new vicar at Christ Church Mr Evans left us to be replaced by Rev. J. Richardson as Assistant Curate whose difficult task it became to lead the church through the First World War.

In spite of the war church services and the parochial work continued. As may be expected the work of the Men's Class suffered most and the outreach halted temporarily. The young women took a lot of time to write letters and packed parcels, for the men of the church serving in the forces. When parcels could no longer be sent because supplies were difficult to come by they were immediately replaced with postal orders. This labour of love so typical of the Saviour folk continued for the duration of the war.

In 1916 Mr John Maddock came as junior curate at Christ Church and at the end of the war took over as Curate in charge at the Saviour. In peacetime the parish began to expand as building began again with more private housing in Lynthorpe and Park Lee Road and Norwood Avenue.

Under the auspices of the church and with Mr Maddock's keen leadership a football team was formed in an effort to encourage the men returning from the war back to the church.

As things began to settle after the war and the church began to grow again the idea that Longshaw should become a separate parish with its own vicar also began to take root and grow. However, this would require a church which could accommodate 400 and a parish of 5000 people. It was obvious that a much larger building was required. It had long been considered something of a miracle that so much work could be carried out in such a small building.

A novel idea was suggested to ease the immediate overcrowding as the Sunday School was bursting at the seams. Surplus disused army huts were being offered for sale and fundraising began immediately to raise the necessary funds. A hut was eventually purchased for £500 and erected with some considerable difficulty by volunteers under the direction of a member of the congregation who just happened to be a joiner.

It was during this process that the church finally gained it's own water supply Just imagine the church had somehow managed to work very hard and very effectively for almost 20 years with no water supply.

The hut served the Sunday School and the Men's Class. Even so this was also soon filled to capacity and the Men's Class moved out to the nearby Longshaw Tennis Club Pavilion. Under the energetic leadership and powerful preaching of Mr Maddock the church went from strength to strength whilst Mrs Maddock invested much time and effort into working with the women.

As the work became more formally organised great demands were made upon the Maddocks who already had a family of four boys. In order to provide a regular stipend the congregation were asked to help. Voluntary subscribers were enlisted and with regular weekly subscriptions and quarterly pew rents it became possible to make Mr Maddocks salary up to the princely sum of £250 per year.

At that time the Maddocks lived in Abbotsford Avenue in a house which although adequate, was not really suitable as a vicarage. When "Prospect Villa" on Sunny Bank Road came for sale it was bought for £200 and rented to the church for 1/- per year by Mr J Butterworth who lived across the road. Thus a vicarage was provided.

In 1919 a building committee was formed with the task of raising £1000 to build a new church to be called the Memorial Church, with the names of the men from the parish who died during the war to be carved on the exterior stone work.

As the work progressed a special meeting to discuss the social life of the church decided that no dancing would be allowed in any of the buildings under the name of Church of the Saviour.

Just as everything was going well and the church making great strides forward a flu epidemic spread through the district claiming many victims including three of the Maddocks' boys, John, Albert and Raymond, leaving only their sister Joan and the fourth boy, Norman who was himself seriously ill. Later a second daughter Eunice was born. Norman recovered and he too entered the ministry.

Over the last years there had been a growing conviction for a new church to be built. Again the question arose, whether to extend the existing building or begin again and rebuild. Adding to this dilemma was the financial background of the time. Money was scarce, the cotton trade slump and closure of more and more cotton mills resulted in several families in the district leaving Blackburn.

After a great deal of prayer, consideration and much thought and believing it to be God's will plans were made to enlarge the existing Mission Church into the Parish Church we have today. The sum of £8000 was required for the work and a very generous donation of £1000 given by Mr C Cotton began the appeal. It was decided that no work would begin until £3000 had been raised.