Church Of St John Evangelist

The Church of St John Evangelist is a parish church dating from 1836-39, with a chancel added in 1846. It was designed by Richard Lane, with later work by Gregan. The church is built of ashlar, with a Welsh slate roof, and is in the Gothic style, resembling a Commissioners' Church, but was in fact privately-endowed.

The church comprises a west tower and flanking porches, a nave, and a chancel. The three-stage tower features a three-light Decorated window, a two-tier window and clock above, paired bell chamber lights, and an embattled parapet. Angle buttresses form tall pinnacles. The west side contains paired 2-light Decorated windows with transoms, and porches which have chamfered arched doors to the north and south. The six-bay nave is divided by buttresses with 2-light Decorated transomed windows in each bay and an embattled parapet. The chancel, a later addition, is of rock-faced rubble with a steep graded slate roof, containing three bays with Decorated windows. A north vestry has a stilted arched door and a five-light mullioned window. The east window is a five-light Decorated window. An organ chamber and vestry are incorporated into a cross gable to the south.

Internally, the nave arcade consists of six bays with slender octagonal shafts on high bases. The original galleries have been removed, and a Minton tiled floor remains. Features include wood-traceried panelled bench ends and dado wall panelling. A late 19th-century wrought-iron chancel screen, originally from Porthill, Staffordshire, is present. A baptistery is located below the tower with a shallow arch from the nave, housing a marble font. An internal window gives access to the tower chamber. The chancel has a richly coloured Minton encaustic floor and a stone-traceried reredos, flanked by tiled arched panels coloured with majolica glazes. Decorative texts including the Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and the Credo, with embossed lettering set in decorative borders (probably late 19th-century Minton Hollins) are also featured. An ogee-arched and crocketed tomb recess in the north wall commemorates John Clowes, the church’s patron, who died in 1846. Stained glass by Hardman is in the east window, and possibly in the north and south chancel windows; the south window’s angels in quatrefoils are attributed to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Three north nave windows contain glass by Gilbert Shaw, one dated 1861. An internal west window, from the studio of Kempe, was installed in 1903.