Bartholomew Bretherton chose the location where the church would be built, on the Warrington Road, in direct sight of anyone travelling down the main road through the village. He also chose the design for the church and wanted it to be dedicated to his own patron saint, Saint Bartholomew. The design he chose was by a local architect, Joshua Dawson. The architect went to Rome to look at the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola there. In 1838, building started and the stones were taken from a local quarry that the Bretherton family owned. The foundation stone was laid by Bartholomew Bretherton's daughter, Mrs Mary Gerard in April 1838. The building was completed two years later. The total cost was £8,000 and it was formally opened and consecrated on 24 August by the Vicar Apostolic of the Lancashire District, George Hilary Brown. Nine years later, in 1849, an Italian-style Bell tower was added to the side of the church. Bartholomew's daughter, Mary, added a lady chapel or chantry in 1845 in memory of her first husband, William Gerard of New Hall, Ashton-in-Makerfield. Other additions were also made in later years, notably, the imposing sandstone gateway to the grounds and the surrounding walls. Mary, her parents and Mary's two husbands are all interred in the church.
Parish
Surrounding the church is a cemetery. Buried there are the members of the Stapleton-Bretherton family who owned the surrounding land and Rainhill Hall. They include Evelyn, Princess Blücher and her husband Prince Gebhard Blücher von Wahlstatt, a descendant of General-Field-Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher who commanded the Prussian Army at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Also buried in the church cemetery is Kenneth Dewar who was a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy and was in the Battle of Jutland. He was married to Gertrude Stapleton-Bretherton, Evelyn's sister. The church shares a priest with the nearby St Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Sutton Manor. St Bartholomew's has Sunday Mass at 5:15 pm on Saturday and at 9:30 am on Sunday. It also has Masses at 9:15 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Accordingly, St Theresa's Mass times do not conflict, they are at 6:45 pm on Saturday and 11:00 am on Sunday. Their weekday Masses are at 8:15 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The church featured episodes of Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. There was a marriage ceremony and a funeral filmed there.
