Church Of St George

The Church of St George is a Grade II* listed building constructed between 1822 and 1825 by architect Thomas Rickman. It is built of ashlar stone and has a slate roof. The church features a west tower, a nave, and a chancel that are all integrated into one structure, along with north and south aisles, designed in the Early English style.

The tower is four stages high, battlemented, and includes small angle buttresses that are chamfered and topped with octagonal pinnacles. The west doorway is arched and set beneath a crocketed gable, while a tall lancet window with a hoodmould is also present. The third stage of the tower has clock faces on three sides, and the belfry features arcades of three tall lancets, with the outer ones being blind.

The nave and aisles are arranged in seven bays, with the aisles showcasing vertically emphasized bays of coupled lancets separated by buttresses that culminate in pinnacles above a plain coping. The nave has a horizontal emphasis, with a clerestorey featuring evenly spaced lancets—two for each bay—connected by a band that runs across vestigial buttresses below the cornice of a battlemented parapet. The east window consists of five stepped lights.

Inside, the church has moulded two-centred arches on piers with attached shafts that have moulded caps. The tower arch is deeply splayed and features tracery and stained glass. The ceilings are flat and supported by flying ribs; the aisles have simple ribs, while the nave showcases a hammerbeam construction with sexfoil spandrels, with every other frame resting on wall shafts. There is a gallery with arcaded panels at the west end and inside each aisle, supported by slender iron shafts and cusped multifoil segmental arches.

At the west end of the north aisle, there is a baptistery featuring a white marble angel holding a scalloped bowl, said to be inspired by Thorwaldsen. The church also includes an elaborately sculpted octagonal pulpit by Thomas Rawcliffe of Chorley, and parts of the original box pews have been repurposed as wainscot for the aisle walls. This church, built at a cost of £12,387, is an impressive example of Rickman's architectural style.