Church of St Barnabas is a Grade II listed building in the Chorley local planning authority area, England. First listed on 30 January 1987. Church.

Church of St Barnabas

WRENN ID
winter-chapel-nettle
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Chorley
Constituency
Chorley MP: Sir Lindsay Hoyle (Spk)
Country
England
Date first listed
30 January 1987
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Barnabas, Church Lane, Heapey
OS grid reference
SD 601 205
Coordinates
53.67954, -2.60415
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Barnabas is a church said to have been rebuilt in 1740, enlarged in 1828, and partly rebuilt again in 1865, when the transepts and chancel were added. The nave likely dates from the early 19th century, retaining some 18th-century fabric, and was re-roofed in 1865. The church is constructed of watershot coursed sandstone with a slate roof featuring patterned bands.

The church consists of a nave with north and south transepts, and a chancel. The nave is large and lofty, in a simple Georgian style, with later additions including buttresses and a porch. Wide, full-height transepts are in a simple Gothic style, and the chancel is low, matching their design. The nave is divided into five bays by full-height, three-stage buttresses that do not align with the window spacing. Each bay features a very large round-headed window with a plain surround, a prominent keystone, and two chamfered mullions and transoms creating nine lights that diminish in height. The second bay on the north side features a gabled porch with a three-order arched doorway. The third bay on the south side contains a square sundial inscribed "Roger Hargreaves & Rich.Whittle . CHAPEL WARDENS Dom 1826". The west gable has diagonal buttresses, three round-headed two-light windows with Y-tracery, imposts and keystones, with the outer windows smaller than the central one. A straight dripstone runs along the eaves, above which sits a circular window containing five trefoils, set within an archivolt, and a trefoil sits in the gable above, framed by an arched band. The transepts have large, pointed-arched two-light windows with traceried heads to the sides and gables, linked at the heads by a band, above which is a wheel window. The north transept has a central door similar to that of the porch. The chancel has one two-light window with matching tracery on each side, and a three-light traceried east window.

The interior features an arch-braced hammerbeam roof with curved struts. A lofty arch separates the nave and the crossing of the transepts, supported by slender, chamfered piers with moulded caps. Notably, exceptionally small side arches spring from these piers, disappearing into the corners of the nave, with moulded respond-caps. A lower chancel arch matches the style. The interior suggests a significant remodelling of what was formerly a galleried church.

Local climate

Church of St Barnabas sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,200 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 87% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 73% of listed buildings. Of these, 20 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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