Church Of St Michael

The Church of St. Michael, built between 1847 and 1848 by J. Clarke, is a Grade II listed church located on Burnley Road East in Rawtenstall. Constructed from sandstone rubble, it features steeply-pitched stone slate roofs, except for the nave, which is now covered with slate. The church has a cruciform layout, consisting of a nave, transepts, and an apsidal chancel, all centered around a square crossing tower with a cylindrical stair turret at the southeast corner. Designed in a Norman style, it includes small round-headed windows.

At the west end of the three-bay nave, there is an added porch that shelters a round-arched doorway, which is flanked by shafts with cushion capitals. Above the porch are three windows and a circular window in the gable. The side walls of the nave contain three windows each, while the short transepts have one window on each side, two in the gable, and a circular window above. The apse features three windows and a roof with overhanging eaves.

The short crossing tower rises one stage above the ridge and has round-headed belfry openings with two louvres on each side, supported by cushion-capital colonettes. It is topped with a corbelled parapet that has roll-moulded weathered coping and a weather vane at the center of the roof, which is not visible. The southeast angle of the tower includes an unusual two-stage stair turret; the first stage is square and contains a priest door and two lancets, while the upper stage is cylindrical with a conical cap.

Inside, the church has been altered by the addition of a partition wall in the tower arch, leaving the nave as a single vessel. The only notable interior feature is the arch-braced collar beam roof. The church was built as a Commissioners' church at a cost of £2,060.