Church Of Saint Luke

The Church of Saint Luke is a parish church dating to the 13th century, with significant restoration and rebuilding in 1854 by George Place, and an incomplete alteration and addition in 1926 by H.G. Gamble. The building is constructed of coursed rubble ironstone with ashlar dressings, red brick, and slate roofs with stone coped gables. It comprises a nave, a south aisle and porch, a south chapel, a chancel, a vestry, and an organ chamber.

The south aisle represents the original nave and has a gabled roof terminating in a western gabled ashlar 19th-century bellcote with twin openings. The west end of the aisle features two stepped buttresses and two tall 19th-century lancet windows; a carved 13th-century gravestone is built into the return, on the north side. The west end of the nave is constructed of brick with two 20th-century lancet windows. The vestry, also in ironstone, has a 20th-century lancet window and a Tudor-style door. The vestry and organ chamber were planned to be joined to form a north aisle, but this extension was never completed, leaving temporary brick walls toothed out to receive an ironstone addition. The north side of the nave has two three-light 20th-century windows in the Perpendicular style. The organ chamber contains a 20th-century lancet window, a large blocked opening, and a Tudor-style door opening. The east end is brick, with ironstone flanking walls, marked to show that the nave was intended to be extended. The east window is a 20th-century five-light window in the Perpendicular style. The south chapel’s east window is a 19th-century three-light window, with a two-light window, a door, and a lancet, all in the Early English style on its south side. The south aisle has two 19th-century two-light windows and a single lancet. A 19th-century south porch leads to a Saxon Norman south door, possibly reset during the 1854 restoration, which is low with plain imposts, slightly chamfered at their lower edge, and features a semi-circular arch with a crudely cut tympanum.

The interior features a three-bay south arcade with 20th-century octagonal columns. The nave is plain, with 19th and 20th-century fittings. In the west end of the south aisle, a 13th-century capital is inverted and set into the wall, originally used as a font. The hexagonal font is a 20th-century reconstruction incorporating 12th-century fragments of a circular tub with cable moulding. The south chapel walls are decorated with stencil designs and texts. The stained glass at the east end dates from 1893. The vestry contains five wall tablets commemorating the Dixon family, originating from the late 18th to the early 19th century.