Christ Church Heaton

A church built for the servants of Bolton's cotton magnates, on Chorley New Road at the junction with Markland Hill.

School, iron church, stone church

For some years before 1878 a congregation met in Markland Hill School as a mission outpost of Deane Church. In 1878 a second-hand iron church was put up on the site, provided for the many servants employed in the large houses that lined Chorley New Road — the homes of the Bolton cotton masters.

The present church

The permanent church was consecrated in 1896. It was designed by the local architect Richard Knill Freeman, who also added the chancel at Holy Trinity, Horwich, and took a little over twelve months to build at a contract cost of around £4,000.

Sources: Christ Church Heaton — our history; Lancashire Online Parish Clerk Project.