This is a low, sturdy Perpendicular style church in gritstone, sited on the edge of a level step in the S side of the Calder valley where the Huddersfield to Halifax road drops down to a bridge; the surviving streets of the old town plan (Southgate, Church Street) lie to the S. The church has an aisled nave of four bays, a tower enclosed by the aisles; a chancel with N chapel and S organ. The nave roof is thought to be 13thc, the oldest in Yorkshire; the nave walls inside are plastered. There are illustrations of the church c. 1830 or 1840 (Butler (2007), 172; Crossley (1920); Ryder (1993), 85) but none show Romanesque features.
Romanesque remains are the voussoirs in the three orders of the pointed chancel arch; the builders in the 14thc made use of 12thc stone, presumably from the previous narrower chancel arch (Bilson 1922).