St Peter & St Paul, Ormskirk
St Peter & St Paul, Ormskirk
The Church of St Peter and St Paul is the Grade II* parish church of Ormskirk, Lancashire, on Church Street (Park Road), in the Diocese of Liverpool. It is one of only three churches in England with both a tower and a spire, and the only one to have them at the same end of the building.
- Location
- Ormskirk, Lancashire
- Country
- England
- County
- Lancashire
- City / town
- Ormskirk
- Address
- Park Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 3AJ
- Postcode
- L39 3AJ
- Built
- C12 onwards; steeple late C14; west tower c.1540–50; nave restoration 1877–91
- Architect
- Paley and Austin (1877–91 restoration)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Peter and Paul
- Diocese
- Liverpool
- Parish
- Ormskirk St Peter and St Paul
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Medieval Gothic with C18 south aisle and Victorian restoration
- Materials
- Coursed squared sandstone; stone slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SD 413 084
- Opening hours
- The church is open on Thursdays from 10.30am to 2.30pm during the summer months for prayer and meditation and to view.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a complicated history: twelfth-century work in the north chancel wall (a deeply splayed Norman window with scallop capitals); a late-thirteenth-century south arcade to the chancel; a late-fourteenth-century steeple at the west end of the south aisle; a massive west tower of about 1540–50, built to house bells from dissolved Burscough Priory; Derby and Scarisbrick chapels of the sixteenth century; a 1729 classical rebuilding of nave and aisles of which the south aisle wall remains; and thorough restoration in 1877–91 by Paley and Austin. Fabric is coursed squared sandstone with stone slate roofs.
The square Tudor tower has three unequal stages, diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles. The steeple has a broached octagonal stage and an octagonal spire rebuilt in 1832. Interior fittings include a 1661 font given by the Countess of Derby, C17 parclose screens and C15 alabaster effigies in the Derby chapel, and a nave ceiling with carved hammerbeam trusses. The church was given to Burscough Priory in the late twelfth century.