Church Of St Luke

The Church of St Luke was built in 1880-81 by T.H. and F. Healy. It is designed in a freely interpreted 14th-century Gothic style, with elements of the Perpendicular style, and some decorative features, particularly the tracery, that hint at an Arts and Crafts aesthetic. Unusually for the period, the church is constructed of snecked ironstone and sandstone, with ashlar dressings. The building includes a nave, chancel, low aisles featuring gabled cross bays and transepts. A prominent feature is the virtually detached campanile tower on the north side. Broad windows with low arches are found on the aisles and west end, featuring complex ogee tracery and cusping. Lower, flat-arched aisle windows incorporate similar tracery. The tower has a plain sandstone shaft that rises to an octagonal ashlar belfry with panel tracery to the bell openings. Water spouts project from a string at the base of the crenellated parapet, which is topped by pinnacles and lucarnes, with a short stone spire rising above. The tower includes a crocketed ogee arched doorway, above which is a canopied niche containing a statue of St Luke. The tower of St Luke's significantly contributes to the Heaton townscape, standing out against the hillside skyline.