The church was built between 1829 and 1830 by R D Chantrell. Although New Mills came into existence in the late eighteenth century as an industrial village involved in cotton textiles, its name is derived from a hamlet which grew up around a fourteenth century manorial corn mill, 'the New Mylne', enclosed by a loop of the river Sett, which was located near the site of the present Salem Mill (at the bottom of High Street).