Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating to 1867, designed by Samuel Dawkes. A vestry was added in 1911, and a south aisle in 1912 by John Douglas and F Walley. Later, in the late 20th century, the interior furnishings were reordered by Graham Holland. The church is constructed of rock-faced coursed red sandstone with grey-green slate roofs, exhibiting separate rooflines for the five-bay nave and aisles.

The west end features a two-light window to the north aisle, and a doorway converted to a window in the late 20th century. A three-stage tower, with a stair turret at the north-west corner, rises to a broach spire. The tower’s first and second stages have cusped lancet windows. The spire has three tiers of lucarnes. The south side of the tower includes a porch archway with boarded doors in a cusped archway with foliate ornament. The bays of the south aisle have alternating single and paired two-light windows. The vestry, designed in a 16th-century style, has a small east extension of stone-dressed brick, and a two-light window to the east bay of the chancel. The chancel has a two-light window to its east bay, and a 2;1;2 light east window. The north aisle has a single-light window to its east bay, and a two-light window in each bay. The north porch includes tracery-panelled doors within an archway supported by bell-capital shafts, with a trefoil above. Simple eaves, coped gables with cross finials are noted.

Inside, the church has circular columns with bell capitals, stone-dressed plastered walls, arch-braced collar trusses to the nave, and a wagon roof to the chancel. Pews have been sensitively reordered, angled to face the altar, and the altar area features a tiled floor. A reredos displays the Commandments, and there is an oak pulpit. The 1878 east window depicts scenes from the life of Christ. A north window in the north aisle commemorates Robert Cecil Morrison, who died in action in 1916 on the Somme. Another east window in the south aisle is dedicated to Frederick Anderson, curate-in-charge (1868-71) and Vicar (1871-1907) and was created by W Lawson in 1924. Further memorial windows are dedicated to MW Lean, headmaster of All Saints School (1929), and to TA Wise, Vicar (1930-44).

Historically, the land, spire, and bells were donated by Mrs Hamilton, widow of a major landowner in Hoole.