[3] In 1494, a chantry chapel dedicated to St Mary the Virgin was endowed by Gilbert Leygh in Middleton It closed at the time of the Reformation.

The church was consecrated on 22 September 1846 by Bishop Longley of Ripon, with the sermon preached by W. F. Hook, Vicar of Leeds.

[4] The Middleton Estate and Colliery Company was granted a licence to mine a seam of coal under the church in 1917 resulting in subsidence and damage to the tall spire which was taken down in 1939.

[6][7] The church is built in coursed sandstone ashlar with slate roofs in the Early English Gothic Revival style.

There is a three-stage south west tower with an embattled parapet, angle buttresses and a porch with a Gothic arch and planked door with ornate hinges.