Church Of St Chad

The Church of St. Chad is a Grade II* listed building, primarily dating from the mid-18th century. It is constructed of stone and features a slate roof. The church has a predominantly Georgian style, with an early 17th-century tower and an apsidal chancel added in 1868. The west tower is castellated and made of coursed, roughly-dressed stone, featuring diagonal buttresses at the west corners and angled buttresses at the east corners. It has four small corner pinnacles added in 1923, paired round-headed belfry louvres on all four sides, and a clock face with a circular moulded surround beneath the belfry on the north and south sides.

The wide nave is built of coursed dressed stone and has a low-pitched roof that meets the tower at its north-east corner. Large round-headed windows, supported by a string course and featuring plain architraves and Y-tracery, are present, with four on the north side and three on the south side. There is no porch, but two doorways on the south side are adorned with Tuscan columns, triglyphs, and triangular pediments. The right doorway, which provides entry to the Fleetwood family vault, is dated 1699 and features carved corbels supporting the pediment. There is also one doorway on the north side with a plain rectangular surround, and a bullseye window above each door. The apse, added in 1868, is in Romanesque style and has three pairs of round-headed windows.

Inside, the church functions as an auditorium, featuring a three-sided gallery from 1751 supported by Tuscan columns, which is accessed via a fine staircase in the north-west corner. The south-west corner contains part of the family pew of the Rigbys of Layton Hall, with a door that has raised lettering "AR 1636" and a carved goat's head. The pulpit includes carved panels that likely date from the early 17th century. The walls display hatchments of the Hesketh and Fleetwood families, along with significant wall monuments and tablets, primarily dedicated to members of the Hull and Hesketh families.