St Mary's Church is in Knowsley Lane, Knowsley Village, Merseyside, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. 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 Liverpool and the deanery of Huyton. In the '' Buildings of England'' series, Pollard and Pevsner describe the church as being "largish" with "an intimate interior".

History

The church was built in 1843–44 to a design by Edmund Sharpe for the 13th Earl of Derby at a cost of about £20,000 (). 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 6 June 1844 by Rt Revd John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester. Transepts designed by

Edward Paley Edward Graham Paley, usually known as E. G. Paley (3 September 1823 – 23 January 1895), was an English architect who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, in the second half of the 19th century. After leaving school in 1838, he went to La ...

, Sharpe's successor in the architectural practice, were added in 1860. In 1871–72 a memorial chapel to the 14th Earl of Derby, designed by Paley and Austin, was added. It cost £3,000, which included the cost of a monument with a figure by Matthew Noble. In 1892–93 a new vestry and a new east window by Paley, Austin and Paley were built. An organ was installed in the Derby chapel in 1913. In 1981–82 the church was reordered, a nave altar was introduced, and meeting and service facilities were installed in the base of the tower.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in sandstone with freestone dressings and has a stone tile roof. Its architectural style is mainly Early English. The plan of the church consists of a west steeple, a five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave with north and south aisles and a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

, a north porch, north and south transepts, a five-bay chancel with a north chapel (formerly the Derby chapel), and a south vestry. The tower is in three stages, with angle buttresses. In the bottom stage is a west doorway with

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

s above. The middle stage also contains windows with pointed arches. In the top stage are two-light bell openings containing

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

tracery, flanked by blind arches. The tower is surmounted by a

broach spire A broach spire is a type of spire (tall pyramidal structure), which usually sits atop a tower or turret of a church. It starts on a square base and is carried up to a tapering octagonal spire by means of triangular faces. File:Leicester Cathedral ...

with two tiers of lucarnes. Each bay on the south side of both the aisles and the clerestory contains a pair of windows. The transepts have buttresses, a

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

table, two-light north and south windows in Decorated style, and small west windows. The chancel also has a corbel table. Its east window has five lights with Perpendicular tracery, and the two two-light south windows are in Decorated style. The north chapel is also in Decorated style, and has a four-light north window. Along the north side of the church are three-light windows, and a frieze of

s. The vestry has a square-headed window and an east doorway re-set from an earlier doorway.

Interior

The nave arcades are carried on quatrefoil

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

with foliage

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

. The chancel arch includes carvings of Queen Victoria and the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

. The nave is floored with 19th-century relief tiles, and there are encaustic tiles in the chapel. Inside the church is an intricately carved bench from Knowsley Hall which is dated 1646, and

royal arms The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, or the royal arms for short, is the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently King Charles III. These arms are used by the King in his official capacity as monarch of the United Kingdom. Varian ...

dated 1567. The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

, dating from 1866, was designed by Edwin Stirling. In the Derby chapel is a recumbent alabaster

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

by Matthew Noble of the 14th Earl of Derby. Along the chancel walls are memorial mosaics dating from the 1910s and 1920s. The octagonal

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

was created in 1890 by Stubbs and Sons of Liverpool. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is polygonal and dates from about 1946. Stained glass in the church includes the east window of 1893 by Shrigley and Hunt, a window in each transept by Lavers and Barraud, and a window in the south wall of the chancel of 1923 by Powell and Sons. The three-

manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual * Instruction manual (gaming) * Online help Other uses * Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ * Manual (band) * Manual transmission * Manual, a bicycle technique similar to ...

organ was made in 1913 by Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool.

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of a soldier of World War I, and two soldiers of World War II.

References

Citations Sources * * Although this is self-published, it is a scholarly work and fully referenced throughout. (As of 2011 it is available only as a CD.) *

External links

Photograph of the church
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Marys Church, Knowsley Churches completed in 1844 19th-century Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in Merseyside Knowsley Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Edmund Sharpe buildings E. G. Paley buildings Paley and Austin buildings Knowsley, Merseyside