The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is in Cavendish Street,

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

, Wirral,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

, England. It is an active

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 let ...

church in the

diocese of Shrewsbury The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury is a Roman Catholic diocese in the Province of Birmingham which encompasses the pre-1974 counties of Shropshire and Cheshire in the North West and West Midlands of England. The diocese includes rural ar ...

. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The church was built between 1860 and 1862 to a design by E. W. Pugin. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

was added in 1876–77, and was designed by Pugin and Pugin. A planned steeple was not completed. In 1941 the adjacent presbytery was destroyed by bombs, and there was some damage to the east end of the church. The church was restored in 1951 by Reynolds and Sons.

Architecture

Our Lady's is constructed in stone with Welsh slate roofs. Its plan consists of a

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 ...

with a clerestory, north and south aisles – each with two projecting confessionals, a south west porch, an

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

chancel with lean-to

vestries A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquially ...

resembling an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

, and a north east tower. At the west end are paired entrances over which is a painted and carved rose in a quatrefoil. Above this is a band of five narrow lancet windows and a large rose window. On the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s are

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

cross finials. At the west end of the aisles are paired lancets. Along the sides of the aisles are triple lancet windows in each bay, between which are

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...

es. The clerestory windows are wide single lancets. There are more lancet windows at clerestory level around the chancel, with raised letting below. The tower rises only to the height of the eaves. It has a south doorway above which is a niche containing a statue of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, on the east side is a rose window, and there is a northeast stair turret. Inside the church, the reredos of 1895 is by Pugin and Pugin. Lining the apse are two stages of blind arcading, and paintings by Hardman & Co. that were damaged in 1941.

References

{{Diocese of Shrewsbury Our Lady Roman Catholic churches in Merseyside Grade II listed churches in Merseyside Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury 1862 establishments in England Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom

History

Architecture

See also

References