Architecture

All Souls is very large for a parish church. It is built in locally made brick and dressed with Longridge sandstone. The interior is dressed with Stourton stone. All Souls is built in a medieval style and has a character more reminiscent with the early nineteenth century. The tower is 36 metres tall topped with crenellations and pinnacles and contains 8 bells made by Taylor of Loughborough in 1880. The tower used to carry a weather vane dated 1880. It was blown off in the storm of 1952 and was not replaced.

The most notable feature of All Souls is the unobstructed view of the chancel from the nave. The Greenhalgh brothers wanted everyone to be able to see and hear the vicar and see all the features of the church. He also wanted all the pews to be available free of charge to all so there are no name plates on them. Greenhalgh also wanted the congregation to be comfortable so he stipulated that there should be no draughts. Victorian churches were often cold, draughty and damp so the congregation must have appreciated this. To give an unobstructed view, the nave and aisles had to be free from pillars. This presented quite a challenge to Paley and Austin and they came up with a design for one on the widest unsupported parish churches in England measuring 16 metres. The nave is divided into six bays, or vertical divisions, each containing a window with three lights. The wall shafts at the side of each window rise up to an impressive timber roof of the king post construction- the large vertical post rising from the horizontal roof truss to the apex-which stops the very long roof truss from sagging.