United Reformed Church And Attached Walls

This is a United Reformed Church, school, and hall built between 1874 and 1877, designed by David Grant. The church is constructed of Padiham stone with a crockfaced finish, dressed Longridge stone around the openings, and brick and stone to the rear church rooms. The interior woodwork, including the roof, is made of pitch pine. Slate covers the roofs. It is designed in the High Victorian Gothic style, oriented on a north-south axis.

The east end features a shallow apse with rib-vaulted plaster and a simply moulded chancel arch. Vestries are situated to either side. The main nave is broad and undivided, with a trilobed, boarded roof of four bays, secured by a chamfered tie beam spanning the central lobe. A west gallery is supported by cast-iron columns. A saddleback tower is located to the west, with an exceptionally steep roof, and a north vestibule and a south vestibule-cum-stair tower, both with polygonal roofs. The nave has returns with setback buttresses to each bay, featuring single lancet windows. Two gable ranges face outwards, forming the church halls at the rear. The first range is a schoolroom with two adult classrooms, and the easternmost section contains an infants' classroom and an additional room. The school entrances allow the minister and choir direct access to their vestries from the east end.

Inside, many original furnishings are present, including panelling, pews, door surrounds, and the gallery front. A notable feature is the organ located in the shallow apse, accompanied by choir stalls on a low dais separated from the nave by a wood and metal rail, created by Andrew Tomlinson. A large, high-quality wood pulpit, potentially made of figured walnut, is situated to the northeast. Windows are glazed with tinted cathedral glass.

The church forecourt is enclosed by Padiham stone walls; a square stone lamp base stands immediately west of the main entrance. The west elevation exhibits a highly mannered and inventive, asymmetrical design. David Grant (born in 1846), a well-regarded Nonconformist architect and secretary of the Leyland Church building committee, resided in Leyland during construction and had established offices in Preston by 1874.