In Anglo-Saxon times, Whalley church was an important Minster and the mother church of an enormous parish. Later, in the medieval period, several chapels-of-ease were attached to Whalley church for the 'ease' of the scattered population providing access to the Mass and the sacraments. After the move made by the Cistercian monks of Stanlow to Whalley at the end of the 13th century, traffic would have increased along this route. In April 2020 the historian Mark Fletcher, in an article 'So Who Were the Medieval Pilgrims?' questioned this theory, and suggested the perhaps rather more plausible alternative that these 'pilgrims routes' were actually used by drovers, moving livestock from grazing areas to markets.