Christ Church, Walmsley

Walmsley was the old name for the present village of Egerton. The first known building there was originally a chapel of ease in the ancient parish of Bolton le Moors. The date that this original chapel was built is not known, but the Diocesan Church Calendar stated that it existed in 1500 and the first documentary evidence appears to be in the "Inventories of Church Goods 1552". The chapel was rebuilt in 1771, but was demolished in 1839. Colonel JW Slater had the old site excavated in the early 1900s and found three older layers under the Georgian chapel, the lowest, he supposed to be of late Saxon origin, being an equal-legged cross in plan. The upper layers had an extended main leg. The…

Inside the church, the arcades are carried on monolithic piers (made from single pieces of stone). They are 12 ft high, excluding capitals and stub-bases and are carved into four shafts around a central spine. (earlier references to 16 ft ht are incorrect) The west gallery is supported on two cast iron columns.