Church Of St Luke

The Church of St Luke is an Anglican parish church dating to 1889, designed by John Eaton & Sons of Ashton-under-Lyne. It is constructed of red brick with stone and terracotta dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof with red cresting tiles.

The church has a plan comprising a six-bay nave with narrow aisles (not visible externally), internal transepts—the north transept containing the organ—a single-bay chancel without aisles, and a polygonally apsed sanctuary. Further elements include a west narthex, a west bellcote, a south baptistry in the west bay of the nave, and a southeast vestry.

The west front is a carefully designed composition. A three-bay narthex is topped by a parapet and features regular triple lancet windows in each bay. A central gable has coping, while the ends of the narthex are canted, with the main entrance on the right side, featuring a depressed doorway arch with a blank arcaded tympanum under the gable. Large buttresses at the angles, between the west front and the canted faces of the narthex, rise above the parapet as flying buttresses, connecting with the west wall of the nave and framing large, five-light, stepped lancet windows under a superordinate arch with hood moulds. The nave has a sprocketted roof, and its side walls feature double lancets, linked by a continuous label impost string course. The gabled transepts are similarly treated.

Inside, the arcades have continuous hood moulds over square-section piers with demi-shafts to the east and west. The transverse arches to the aisles are set very low. A large, canted, boarded roof covers the nave, with the principal section over the chancel resting on stone carbel shafts. The church contains contemporary fittings of a high Victorian character, including choir stalls, a reading desk, and a polygonal pulpit with a soundboard, altar table, and reredos, all featuring punched tracery. Decorative tiling is present throughout.

The church represents a good example of a late 19th-century church designed by a relatively unknown architectural practice that significantly contributed to the townscape of Ashton and its surroundings, demonstrating expertise in contemporary architectural trends.