The Church of St James the Great is in Church Road, Haydock, a former mining community, now part of the
Metropolitan Borough of St. Helens,
Merseyside, in the North-west of England (postcode WA11 0NJ). It is an active
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
parish church in the
Diocese of Liverpool, the Archdeaconry of St. Helens and Warrington and the Deanery of Winwick.
History
Haydock National School was opened on this site in 1837, Church services being conducted in the main classroom by clergy from Ashton. (It now forms a meeting room connecting the Church to the adjacent Vicarage). By 1861 the rising population of Haydock made this provision inadequate. It was hoped to build a large parish church in the centre of the community, but to solve the immediate problem it was decided to build a chapel attached to the School, and connected to it by large double doors. This chapel, the original church, was designed by W. and J. Hay
[ and built by George Harris of St. Helens. It was ]consecrated
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...
on 11 December 1866 . At the laying of the foundation stone the dedication was stated to be to St. Alban, but at the consecration of the building as the Parish Church of the newly founded Parish the dedication was made to St. James the Great.
By 1888 this had become too small for the growing population. Rather than building a new church on another site it was decided to build onto the existing chapel and in 1889 plans were approved for a substantial extension. The foundation stone for this was laid on 5 October 1889 and the newly extended church was opened on 25 July 1891, although it was not consecrated until June 1892. The original church became the Lady chapel of the enlarged church.
Present day
The parish stands in the Traditional Catholic tradition of the Church of England. As it rejects the ordination of women
The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...
, the parish receives Alternative Episcopal Oversight from the Bishop of Beverley (currently Glyn Webster).
Architecture and fittings
The original church was small and built of brick. It now forms the Lady chapel of the church. The newer part of the church is timber framed with brick nog
Brick nog, (nogging or nogged,Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009. Nog, v. 2. beam filling) is a construction technique in which bricks are used to fill the vacancies in a wooden frame. The w ...
ging on a sandstone plinth. This style was chosen because its flexibility would give protection against possible mining subsidence
Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...
. The liturgical east end was originally timber framed but this was rebuilt in brick and render in 1929–31. The interior of the church contains much dark-stained oak.
The most striking feature of the Church is the hanging rood dated 1952, designed by Edward Hines of the Warham Guild and carved by Jethro Harris. In the Lady Chapel is a triptych dated 1999 made from icons from the monastery of Barsana in Romania.
External features
The churchyard contains the war graves of eight soldiers of World War I. The Miners' Memorial in the style of a continental wayside cross stands near the entrance to the Church, over the common grave of many of those killed in the Woodpit mining disaster of 1878.
Activities
The church is in the high church tradition of the Church of England[ and runs services on Sundays and some weekdays, arranges baptisms, weddings and funerals and runs a number of parish groups.]
See also
* List of new churches by John Douglas
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Saint James the Great, Haydock
Churches completed in 1891
19th-century Church of England church buildings
Haydock, Church of St James The Great
Haydock, Church of St James The Great
Haydock, Church of St James The Great
Haydock
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