St John's Church, Birkdale

The red sandstone tower of St John's rises above the tree line in Birkdale like a sturdy sentinel, visible for miles across the flat Lancashire landscape. Inside, you'll find the sort of Victorian Anglican church that tells you something about how this area developed - solid, substantial, built when Birkdale was becoming a proper suburb of Southport rather than just sand dunes and marshland.

It's not a showstopper. There are no medieval treasures or jaw-dropping architectural flourishes here. What you get instead is a genuinely peaceful space with decent stained glass and the kind of hushed, slightly dusty atmosphere that makes you want to sit for five minutes and actually think. The interior is roomy and light, which matters more than you'd think when you're trying to escape the seafront crowds just a mile away.

Worth stopping by if you're staying at Southport Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite or any of the parks clustered around Leisure Lakes, but don't plan your holiday around it. This works best as a quiet interlude during a day exploring Southport itself - the Victorian architecture, the pier, the beach. Give it twenty minutes, maybe half an hour if you're the contemplative type. It's the sort of place that feels like a genuine discovery precisely because most visitors whizz straight past heading for the seafront.