The Church of St Mary, Lowe House is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

situated on North Road in St Helens, Merseyside. The present church was founded in 1924 and staffed by the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

until 1981. It is a Grade II listed building with Romanesque and

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

features.

History

Origin

The church is named St Mary's Lowe House because it was built on a piece of land gifted by Winefred Eccleston, née Lowe, near to her home on Cowley Hill. The Section dedicated to Eccleston. Winefred was the widow of John Gorsuch Eccleston, a former owner of Eccleston Hall that had previously provided for a Roman Catholic Chapel until later owners closed it. The first chapel was constructed and opened in 1793 and was known as Lowe House. It was enlarged three times, the final time being in 1857.

Foundation

To accommodate the growing Catholic population in the town, construction of a new church was started in 1924 by the side of the original church (which was eventually demolished in 1930). The foundation stone was laid by the

Archbishop of Liverpool The Archbishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. The archdiocese covers an area of of the west of the C ...

Frederick Keating Frederick William Keating (13 June 1859 – 7 February 1928) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served first as Bishop of Northampton from 1908 to 1921, then Archbishop of Liverpool from 1921 to 1928. Biography Born in Birm ...

on 11 May 1924. The scale was decided on by Fr Reginald Riley SJ, who wanted a larger size church for the local Catholic community. He was parish priest at the church from 1912 to 1946. The church was opened in 1929, and was designed by Charles B. Powell, an Irish architect who did other architectural work for the Jesuits in Dublin. It is colloquially referred to as 'The Basilica of St Helens' and 'The Poor Man's Cathedral' by people in St Helens, because construction of the church was funded by donations from the local population during a time of economic struggle. The dome, designed in a Romanesque crossed with Gothic style, is on the point where the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

and

transepts A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

meet, sitting on a castellated octagonal tower. There is a copper cross on the dome that is 16 feet high. It was given to the church by the family of a local builder, James Yearsley whose company helped lay the foundations. The clock face on the 130 ft tall tower is set in gold mosaic.

Carillon

A major feature of the clock tower is the historic

Carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

(bells playable in musical notation by a keyboard, rather than in sequences by ropes). Cast and built by renowned bellfounders John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, it is the largest in the North West of England housing 47 bells. The Carillon is regularly played and there are also occasional recitals by visiting Carillonneurs.

Parish

Every week, the church has two Masses every Sunday, one at 11:00 am and the other at 4:30 pm. Also, there are Masses at 9:15 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On 27 July 1980, the head of the Jesuits in Britain announced to the congregation that, as of Easter 1981, the church would no longer be staffed by Jesuits and would be handed over to the Archdiocese of Liverpool. In 2010, the parish was merged with the nearby Holy Cross and St Helen parish in the centre of St Helens to become the parish of Holy Cross and St Mary. However in 2014, following changes in the archdiocese, St Mary's Lowe House was paired with the parish of St Thomas of Canterbury, Dentons Green. The church of Holy Cross & St. Helen reverted to a single parish under a new parish priest.

Gallery

File:Memorial stone in St Mary's Church, Lowe House, St Helens.JPG, Memorial stone for Winefred Eccleston File:Nave of St Mary's Church, Lowe House, St Helens.JPG, Nave File:Entrance of St Mary's Church, Lowe House, St Helens.JPG, Entrance File:Church of St Mary (Lowe House), St. Helens - geograph.org.uk - 1541687.jpg, Interior

References

External links

John Taylor & Co., Bellfounders

British Carillon Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Saint Mary, Lowe House Roman Catholic churches in Merseyside Churches in St. Helens, Merseyside Grade II listed churches in Merseyside Roman Catholic churches completed in 1929 Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England 1929 establishments in England Romanesque Revival church buildings in England Church buildings with domes 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom