St John the Evangelist's Church, Crawshawbooth

St John the Evangelist’s Church stands in the village of Crawshawbooth, a short distance from Rawtenstall in Lancashire’s Rossendale valley. Built between 1890 and 1892, it was designed by the Lancaster architects Paley, Austin and Paley. The sandstone building follows the Perpendicular style, with a nave and chancel under one roof, north and south aisles, and a tower rising above the north transept. Yorkshire stone dressings and green Cumberland slate roofing give the exterior a strong, dignified appearance. The west window holds five lights with intersecting tracery, while the chancel’s east window has six lights in the same style. Diagonal buttresses on the tower rise to octagonal turrets topped with crocketed pinnacles. The church once seated 616 people, but dwindling congregations and lead thefts led to its declaration as redundant in 2012. Financial support for its construction came from Thomas Brooks, 1st Baron Crawshaw, whose family memorials still line the interior. The red Rainhill sandstone lining the walls contrasts with the round and octagonal columns of the five-bay arcades. Carved wooden screens separate the nave from the chancel and the north transept, and some choir stalls carry crocketed canopies with statues. A hexagonal font and a 20th-century reredos showing the Four Evangelists add to the interior’s detail. Visitors find a Grade II* listed building whose tower dominates the village skyline. Inside, the high chancel arch and elaborate woodwork draw the eye upward, while the carved texts from Psalm 148 appear near the tower base. The church now appears on English Heritage’s “Heritage at Risk” register, and a local group called Save St Johns works to secure a new future for the building. Its Perpendicular windows and buttresses remain clear examples of late 19th-century church architecture.