[2] The Anglican parish of Ormskirk encompassed the settlements of Lathom, Burscough, Bickerstaffe, Scarisbrick and Skelmersdale.

The earliest part of the building is the north wall of the chancel, which dates from c. 1170 and contains a heavily restored Norman window.

This tower was built to house four bells from Burscough Priory, which had been suppressed c.1536 as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.

[8] The final Gothic work in the church is the Derby Chapel, built in the second half of the sixteenth century.

[8][4] The firm also refloored, re-roofed and reseated the church, installed a new heating system, and removed the galleries.

The tower has arched three-light belfry windows with stone louvres and uncusped intersecting tracery, a characteristic of local 16th century gothic.

[1][4] The gothic windows of the nave aisles are a result of Paley and Austin's restoration, though the sundial, plinth, and parapet are still classical.

In his Passages from the English Notebooks of 1876, Nathaniel Hawthorne commented that the church "has not exactly a venerable aspect, being too good in repair, and much restored in various parts".

[3] The Derby Chapel is enclosed to the north and west by a 17th-century wooden screen with high balusters and wrought iron fleur-de-lis cresting.