St John the Evangelist Church

A Commissioners' church of the 1820s on Church Street, Farnworth, and the oldest Anglican church building in the town. It is listed Grade II.

A Commissioners' church

St John's was built between 1824 and 1826 to a design by Thomas Hardwick, funded under the Church Building Act — one of the "Commissioners' churches" put up across the industrial north to serve populations that had outgrown their medieval parishes. The first stone was laid on 4 March 1824 by Benjamin Rawson of Darley Hall, Farnworth, who gave the land the church stands on.

Later work

The chancel and porches were added in 1873 by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin, who also built All Souls, Bolton, as part of a restoration costing £4,000 — the better part of half a million pounds in today's money.

Sources: St John the Evangelist's Church, Farnworth — Wikipedia; Church of England Church Heritage Record.