There are views towards St Helens and Liverpool in the south west, Ormskirk and Southport in the north-west and towards Wigan, Manchester and on to the High Peak of Derbyshire in the east.

George Lyon, reputed to be one of the last English highwaymen, is said to be buried in the churchyard of the Anglican Church of St. Thomas the Martyr.

They hold regular exhibitions and paint a wide range of subjects from local scenes to contemporary abstract pieces.

The Anglican parish church of St Thomas the Martyr was, until the time of the Protestant Reformation, a Benedictine monastic foundation.

The college closed down in 1987 after over 150 years of serving the northern Catholic dioceses of England, and its extensive buildings are now derelict.