Church of St Mary and St Michael, Bonds

The Church of St Mary and St Michael stands in the village of Bonds, south of Garstang in Lancashire. Built in 1857–58, it replaced an earlier chapel in Garstang and remains an active Roman Catholic church in the diocese of Lancaster. The building is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. Designed by Lancaster architect E. G. Paley, it once seated 600 people and cost £7,000 to construct. The church’s exterior is made of sandstone rubble with slate roofs and features a west tower in three stages. The church’s plan includes a five-bay nave, a chancel, a north aisle with a Lady chapel, and a north porch. The tower has diagonal buttresses, an embattled parapet, and a stair turret topped with a spirelet. Pointed arches on round columns support the arcade inside, while the nave has an open timber roof and the chancel a barrel roof. The Caen stone reredos is decorated with arcading, and the altar and rail are framed by marble shafts. A stoup at the sacristy entrance holds a stone inscribed with the date 1639. Visitors find stained glass from the late 19th century, likely made by Hardman, and a two-manual organ installed in 1949 by Henry Ainscough and Company. The organ case was designed by Dr J. Reginald Dixon of Lancaster Cathedral and restored in 1989 by the Pendlebury Organ Company. The church’s east window has five lights, and dormer windows punctuate the chancel roof. The Lady chapel at the east end of the north aisle contains a two-light window, adding to the building’s varied fenestration.