St John's Church, Ellel

St John’s Church stands in Chapel Lane, Ellel, Lancashire, on a gentle rise above the village. Built in 1906–07 to replace an earlier church of 1800, it replaced a building on a different site. The architects were Austin and Paley of Lancaster, who produced a design described as “decidedly monumental.” The church is made of local sandstone rubble under a red-tiled roof, with a tower at the crossing and a north aisle. A south porch shelters a pointed doorway topped by a gable cross, while the east window contains five lights in mixed Perpendicular and Decorated tracery. The interior holds a six-bay arcade on alternating round and octagonal piers, and a two-manual pipe organ by Ainscough of Preston. Early-20th-century stained glass by Shrigley and Hunt fills the nave windows, and the chancel contains a piscina. The war grave of a Royal Garrison Artillery soldier from the First World War lies in the churchyard. The tower was intended to carry a spire but the plan was never carried out. Visitors step into a calm nave lit by clerestory windows on the north side only. The south wall shows three large windows under segmental heads, with a smaller window and a door higher up. The north aisle windows have flat heads, while the chancel’s east window rises above the altar in five lights. The crossing tower rises above the interior, its buttresses and stair turret visible from outside. The churchyard offers a quiet view over the surrounding countryside.