St John the Evangelist Church
Recently, we've been spending a lot of time photographing some spots round the area close to this church so it would have been rude to not pop in and take some snaps despite not getting round to it years ago when we still exploring.
History (from many of the reports for this spot):
St John the Evangelist's Church is in the village of Crawshawbooth, near Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England. It is aredundant Anglican parish church formerly in the deanery of Rossendale, the archdeaconry of Bolton, and the diocese of Manchester. Its benefice has been united with that of St Mary and All Saints, Goodshaw. The church is recorded in theNational Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. St John's was built between 1890 and 1892 to a design by the Lancaster architects Paley, Austin and Paley. The estimated cost of the church was £6,800 but, because of problems with the foundations, its final cost, including the fittings, was nearer to £12,000 (£1,170,000 in 2016). It provided seating for 616 people. Financial donations towards the site and structure of the church were made by Thomas Brooks, 1st Baron Crawshaw of Crawshaw Hall. Because of diminishing numbers attending the church, and because of thefts of lead from the roof of the church, the congregation has decided to opt for the church to be declared redundant. The church was declared redundant on 20 February 2012.
The Explore:
We almost missed the entrance after doing a few runs round the building before spotting our access point. As you may imagine it was a calm and peaceful explore allowing us to spend plenty of time shooting what we wanted. We obviously wanted to climb the bell tower to the roof but the stairs became too full with twigs that birds had brought in so being a few spirals from the top we decided enough was enough and headed back down which was a shame, but it didn't ruin finally seeing this place for ourselves.
Top end of the main church hall.
The place had really started to decay in some parts which added to it quite nicely.
Quick snap just before heading down the bell tower.
We have just released our video take on the church adding a few extra unseen parts and extra narration of our time exploring. Feel free to watch below
Thanks for looking!
