About Us

St. John the Evangelist Church in Carlton is a welcoming and friendly church that stands within the catholic wing of the Church of England.

The church is active both in its worship of God and its outreach into the community, and many community groups use the church's facilities.

Facilities include a refreshment area with seating and toilets in a separate room within the church, and there is Parish Hall with catering facilities and toilets directly opposite the front of the church. For more details on booking either of the facilities, contact Michaela Gallamore (Church Warden) on Tel: 07969 320720.

Many children and adults are baptised (christened) and many couples are married in St. John's throughout the year.

If you are interested in these sacraments then please contact the Vicar at the parish office in St. Helen's Church Athersley, on Saturday mornings between 10.30am and 11.00am.

The church of St. John the Evangelist was built for the village of Carlton in 1874/78 to a design by George Edmund Street for Edward Montagu, Earl of Wharncliffe, in memory of his father, John, Lord Wharncliffe, to serve the growing mining community.

Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as 'one of the grittiest of GE Street's churches.'

The church comprises a Nave, Lady Chapel and Chancel. 

The most striking feature is its ‘saddleback tower’ which is an important feature of the local landscape. 

The church contains a fine three manual JJ Binns Organ dating from 1898 (incorporating earlier work probably by Nicholson of Bradford), recently rebuilt by Wood of Huddersfield. 

A new gallery at the west end of the church has given the opportunity to provide community facilities within the building.

There is a fine War Memorial in Portland stone in the churchyard, which features many species of daffodil in the spring.

The church is Grade II Listed (first listed on 13 Jan 1986).

Carlton, Barnsley St John.

By G.E. Street 1874-8, and one of the grittiest of his churches. Dark stone tooled diagonally. Nave and N aisle, then a tower with a tall saddleback roof over the chancel's W bay. Its small circular staircase with conical top stands out on the S side. Varied Dec tracery, the tall W windows separated by a buttress. The chancel has a pointed tunnel vault, stone under the tower, wood in the E bay. The decorative features are consistent of c. 1300: piscina, sedilia, low chancel screen wall, pulpit and font. - Elaborate three-stage pinnacled Font Cover, from Wakefield Cathedral. - Rood by Christi Paslaru c. 2006 (cf. St Luke, Grimethorpe). Additions by Potts, Parry, Ives & Young, c. 2008. 

Excerpt from: The Buildings of England, Yorkshire West Riding, Sheffield and the South by Ruth Harman and Nikolaus Pevsner, 1959/2017.