St Luke's Church, Slyne with Hest

St Luke’s Church stands in the quiet village of Slyne-with-Hest, just outside Lancaster in Lancashire. Built of local sandstone rubble with red tiled roofs, it was designed by the Lancaster architects Austin and Paley between 1898 and 1900. The church was first a chapel of ease for Holy Trinity, Bolton-le-Sands, and became a parish church in its own right in 1934. It is now an active Anglican parish church within the diocese of Blackburn. The building is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The church’s plan includes a nave, a north aisle, a chancel, and a crossing tower with a hipped roof. A timber porch shelters the main entrance, and a stair turret rises higher than the tower at the south-east corner. Inside, a three-bay arcade is carried on circular piers, and the nave and chancel roofs are open to the timbers. The font, added in 1905, is carved from white marble in the shape of an angel holding a scallop shell. Visitors find a calm interior with simple stonework and clear lines. The flat ceiling in the tower contrasts with the open roofs of the nave and chancel. A wooden bellcote projects from the tower roof, and a buttress strengthens the south-west corner. The church sits beside Manor Lane, surrounded by the fields and lanes of Slyne-with-Hest.