Skelmanthorpe is a large village 7 miles SE of Huddersfield in the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire. The present church stands on the western edge of the village and was built by Bodley and Garner in 1894-95. It has a chancel with a S vestry, and a 5-bay nave with aisles. The S aisle extends the entire length of the nave but the N aisle only reaches the 4th bay; the W bay having a gabled porch into the nave. There is no tower but a bell-cote over the E gable of the nave. The only Romanesque fitting is a font brought here in 1904, and said to have been come, like the Cawthorne font, from Cannon Hall (Collingwood, 239). It was thought to have originated in High Hoyland church and to have served for some time as a cattle trough before it was installed here (Coatsworth, 277).

The Domesday Survey treats Thurlstone, Ingbirchworth and Skelmanthorpe as a single entry. They had 9 carucates held by Alric and Healfdene before the Conquest and by Ilbert de Lacy in 1086, when it was waste.

The font has been dated "latest Anglo-Saxon or Early Norman" by Pevsner and 11th to 12thc by Coatsworth. Ryder and Collingwood point out that it came from High Hoyland, and Coatsworth discusses it under High Hoyland. It is related to the font at Cawthorne