St John the Divine's Church, Pemberton

St John the Divine’s Church stands on Church Street in Lamberhead Green, Pemberton, a short distance north-west of Wigan town centre. The building is an active Anglican parish church designed in the Gothic Revival style by Thomas Rickman and Henry Hutchinson between 1830 and 1832. It was one of the Commissioners’ churches, receiving a grant of £4,913 from the Church Building Commission to help pay for its construction. The church was consecrated in September 1832 and originally served as a chapel of ease to Wigan Parish Church. Between 2008 and 2011 the west end was adapted to include a kitchen, toilets and a meeting area. The church is built of brick with sandstone dressings and slate roofs, arranged as a nine-bay nave with north and south aisles, porches on both sides, and a short single-bay chancel. At the west end corner pilasters rise to a turret with louvred lancets and an embattled parapet, while the west front features a gabled doorway with buttresses and a shield in the gable. A triple stepped lancet window sits above the doorway, and each aisle bay is lit by lancets. Inside, three galleries rest on cast-iron columns beneath a flat ceiling. The churchyard is enclosed by Grade II-listed sandstone boundary walls and wrought-iron gates, and contains 25 war graves of Commonwealth service personnel. Fourteen of the graves date from the First World War and eleven from the Second World War. The church itself is also Grade II-listed, recognising its architectural importance and contribution to local heritage.