Until the 1840s the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Bolton-le-Moors covered a large area and was divided into townships, some of which had chapels of ease.

[5] Demolition of the 15th-century church in 1866 revealed several pre-Norman stones under the tower, including a preaching cross in three pieces.

It cost £47,000 (equivalent to £5,290,000 in 2023),[7] and was paid for by Peter Ormrod, a local cotton spinner and banker, of Halliwell Hall.

[9] The church, built in ashlar sandstone with slate roofs, has a nave with clerestory and north and south aisles, transepts, a chancel with a lady chapel and pipe organ chamber.

[1] The four-stage tower projects from the west end of the north aisle and has clasping buttresses at each corner which terminate in crocketted finials.

The octagonal wood panelled pulpit wraps round the northern crossing pier, it has stone base and a wrought iron rail to the stairs.

Of the eight bells installed when the church opened, five were cast in 1699 by Henry Bagley of Ecton in Northamptonshire and three by Rudhall of Gloucester in 1806.

The tenor bell is inscribed, "I to the Chvrch the living call And to the grave doe svmmon all Henry Bagley made mee 1699".

[11][12] The following is a list of the vicars since the Reformation:[3][13] Media related to St Peter's Church, Bolton at Wikimedia Commons