[12][13] The Buildings of England authors consider that Crowther's "most creative" church was St Benedict's, Ardwick (1877–1880) with large high-set windows, an Italianate tower, and an attached clergy house.
[14] As well as churches, Crowther took the opportunity of designing villas in varying styles for the more wealthy people to move from the industrial cities to more attractive places such as Alderley Edge,[15] although apart from his own house, Redclyffe Grange, most of his commissions in this town have been demolished.
[16] Further afield, in what is now Cumbria, he designed country houses such as Holehird in Troutbeck (1854),[17] Wynlass Beck in Windermere (1854),[18] and Parkside in Kendal (1865).
[1] His restoration of the cathedral is considered by the Buildings of England authors as "his final great work", which was incomplete at the time of his death.
[3] J. S. Crowther married a fisherman's daughter, Richanda Barber (from Pakefield, Suffolk and 48 years his junior) in 1891 in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex.