Church Of St Thomas

The Church of St Thomas is a Grade II listed building located on Lydiate Church Lane. It was constructed between 1839 and 1841, with the chancel added in 1913, likely by S. Holmes and Sons. The church is built of stone with a slate roof, featuring dressed stone in the eastern part, accented with ashlar bands and dressings.

The structure includes a nave, a west tower, a chancel, a north vestry, an organ loft, and a south chapel. The four-bay nave has a sill course designed as a dripmould and coped gables. It is adorned with lancet windows that have chamfered reveals and hood moulds, with leaded glazing, some of which includes stained glass. The west tower features pointed entrances on the west and south sides, both with hood moulds, and a north lancet window. Above, there are blind crosses, and the top stage has a sill course, cornice, weathered parapet, and pinnacles. The lancets on the tower include a central stone panel with a quatrefoil, leaded glazing below, and louvres above; the south side also has a clock face above the stone panel.

The chancel is supported by gabled angle buttresses and has a three-light east window with early Perpendicular tracery, along with a similar two-light south window and two two-light clerestory windows above the chapel, which also features two two-light windows and a similar east window. The north vestry includes north and east windows with three elliptical-headed lights, while the organ loft has a two-light north window. There are large gabled buttresses and fragmentary walls suggesting plans for rebuilding at the southeast angle of the nave and to the west of the organ loft.

Inside, there is a deep west gallery supported by two octagonal iron columns and an open-well stair in the tower. The nave has a flat ceiling with tie beams, while the chancel features a waggon roof. The chancel arch rests on octagonal piers, with flanking segmental arches. There are springers for projected nave arcades and rubble with projecting stones above. A two-bay segmental-headed arcade leads to the chapel, with arches that die into piers and responds, and a similar pointed arch leads to the organ loft. The chancel includes a recess for sedilia and a high reredos with alabaster relief panels.