It returned to the Crown following the dissolution of the monasteries and from the 16th to the 20th century, the advowson (the right to appoint a parish priest)A belonged to the Hesketh/Fleetwood family.

The red sandstone building is faced with grey ashlar and consists of a nave, chancel, square tower and a Norman-style apse.

There has probably been a church on the site of the present St Chad's since before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066,[2] and there is written evidence of one from 1094.

[3][4] The dedication of Poulton's church to 7th century Anglo-Saxon saint Chad of Mercia lends weight to its pre-conquest foundation, although it is possible that it was built between 1086 and 1094.

After the conquest Amounderness, which included Poulton, was among the lands given by William the Conqueror to an Anglo-Norman knight named Roger the Poitevin.

In 1094, Roger founded the Benedictine priory of St. Mary at Lancaster,[4] as an offshoot of the Abbey of St. Martin in Sées, Normandy.

In 1194 the hundred of Amounderness was given by King Richard I to Theobald Walter, 1st Baron Butler who became the High Sheriff of Lancashire.

[8] Though the advowson of Poulton (the right to select a parish priest) had been granted by Roger to the monks of Lancaster, Theobald initially thought that it should be included in his entitlements.

[11] In 1291, taxation assessments made on behalf of Pope Nicholas IV valued St Chad's at £68 13s 4d—the third richest church in Lancashire.

[12] In 1345, repairs to the chancel were ordered in a letter from Simon de Bekyngham of Richmond to Sir William, the dean of Amounderness.

[10][11] In 1415, King Henry V dissolved the alien priories (those under control of religious houses abroad) and the church at Poulton reverted to the Crown.

Finding sufficient ground for new burials was increasingly difficult and bones were often removed to a nearby charnel house.

[17] The advowson to Poulton, which had been in the possession of the Fleetwood/Hesketh family for approximately 400 years, was sold in 1934 by Major Charles Fleetwood-Hesketh to the Diocese of Blackburn.

[25] The outer walls of the church are constructed of red sandstone with grey ashlar dressings; the roofs are slate.

[26][27] The church plan consists of a nave, with a square tower to the west and a chancel and apsidal sanctuary to the east.

[1][26] A small stone porch towards the east end of the south wall leads to the Fleetwood family burial vault.

[30] Its screen is made of carved oak, formed in 1883 from one part of the Fleetwood family box pew that was originally situated in the chancel where the choir stalls now sit.

[31] These hatchments are diamond-shaped representations of individual coats of arms, painted for their funeral processions and then hung in the parish church.

[35] The cross was originally situated on Poulton's boundary and marked a resting place for mourners travelling long distances to bury corpses at St Chad's.

[36] Only the two circular steps into which the original structure was set remain; the cross shaft has been replaced by an octagonal pillar.

[20][36] Although the churchyard has been closed to burials since 1884, the ashes of cremated bodies have been interred in a small area to the west of the church since the 1950s.