St Lawrence's Church

St Lawrence’s Church stands beside Garstang Road in Barton, a village on the edge of Preston. Built in 1895–96 to replace an 1850 chapel, it was designed by R. Knill Freeman in sandstone with red dressings and a slate roof. The church has a nave with aisles, a chancel, a south chapel and a tall southwest steeple. Its Decorated style shows in the buttresses, windows and tracery across the exterior. Inside, octagonal columns carry a four-bay arcade and support the roof. The church is worth visiting for its Grade II listing and the quality of Freeman’s work. The 1897 Harrison & Harrison organ, restored in 1985, still fills the building with sound. The west window holds clear glass with coats of arms and boars’ heads, while the reredos carries a Gothic canopy. The clock face and louvred bell openings in the steeple add to the skyline. Its place in the Fellside Team Ministry links it to five neighbouring parishes. Visitors find a calm interior lit by clerestory and aisle windows with intersecting tracery. The chancel windows echo the aisle lights but use Perpendicular patterns. The octagonal spire with lucarnes rises above the two-stage tower, visible from the lane. The churchyard borders Garstang Road, offering a quiet spot beside the village green.