Church of St John the Evangelist, Poulton-le-Fylde

St John's Church
Church of St John the Evangelist
St John's Church from Breck Road, to the west
St John's Church Location in the Borough of Wyre
Coordinates: 53°51′08″N 2°59′06″W / 53.8523°N 2.9849°W / 53.8523; -2.9849
OS grid reference	SD 3530940017
Location	Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire
Country	England
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Dedication	John the Evangelist
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Administration
Diocese	Lancaster
Province	Liverpool

The Church of St John the Evangelist is a Roman Catholic church in the market town of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. The current church replaced an earlier chapel which lies a few metres to the north-east. The former chapel, with its attached presbytery, has been designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage.

Completed in 1813, St John's was the first Roman Catholic chapel to be built in Poulton-le-Fylde, a parish which had remained sympathetic to Catholicism after the Reformation. The box-shaped rendered brick building, with slate roofs, was replaced by a larger church in 1912.

At the time of the English Reformation, St Chad's Church became Poulton's Anglican parish church. Roman Catholics were still active in the area and Poulton was considered "one of the most Catholic parishes in the county"; in the late 16th century, there were thirteen households in the parish who would shelter Catholic seminarians. For a time (possibly until 1745), Catholic families would travel to nearby Singleton to worship. In the early 17th century, it was decided to build the first Roman Catholic chapel in Poulton, and St John's was completed in 1813, dedicated to John the Evangelist. The land, between Moorland Road and Breck Road, had been donated by Thomas Fitzherbert-Brockholes. A tradition from the 1930s tells a story of an old vestment being given to the Catholic church by the vicar of St Chad's, because he thought the vestment was "papist". Investigation by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London identified the probable vestment as dating from the early 16th century, with English embroidery. The new church was completed in 1912, built to the design of Cuthbert Pugin of Pugin & Pugin.