To accommodate the growing number of Catholics in the Crawshawbooth area in the late nineteen thirties the upper floor of a stable at Barleyholme was used as a Mass centre on Saturday evenings, and was used until the early forties when part of the Liberal Club was rented for Sunday worship. In 1950 the Salford Diocese and St James the Less parish jointly purchased club for £1,400. All the work to convert the premises into a church was done voluntarily by the parishioners using materials recovered from other buildings or donated by various people. The church was dedicated to Saint Thomas More who was martyred in the reign of Henry VIII, and was formally opened on 23rd November 1953.

St Thomas More was a small parish and in it's thirty two years of existence performed 208 baptism and 46 marriages. The church was closed in 1985 because of a shortages of priests and the building is now used as The Crawshawbooth Community Centre.