Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

Prescot Prescot is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It lies about to the east of Liverpool city centre. At the 2001 Census, the civil parish population was 11,184 (5,265 males, 5,919 femal ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. It was built in 1856-57 by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, and is now in the Knowsley deanery of the

Archdiocese of Liverpool The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Liverpool () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Isle of Man and part of North West England. The episcopal see is Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The archdiocese is the centre ...

. It is a Grade II listed building, designed by Joseph Aloysius Hansom, and is next to the Church of St Mary on Vicarage Place in the centre of Prescot.

History

Origin

From the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

until 1857, the Catholic population of

had to travel to an area of the town called Portico, two miles from the town centre. From 1790, there was Our Lady Help of Christians Church. The Catholics were so numerous, that in 1583 the

Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the ...

, William Chaderton, wrote to the Privy Council:

Truly the Papists in these parts are lately growing so stubborn and contemptuous that in my opinion it were very requisite that their Lordships did write a very earnest letter to my good Lord the Earl of Derby, myself, and the rest of Her Majesty's Commissioners ... to deal seriously and roundly with them (the Papists of Prescot) otherwise there can be no reformation.

Construction

In 1856, six years after the restoration of the English Catholic hierarchy and the creation of the

, the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

founded a church in the centre of Prescot and asked Joseph Aloysius Hansom to design it for them. He also designed Church of St. Walburge in Preston, St Joseph's Church in

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staffor ...

, St Beuno's Ignatian Spirituality Centre in

Tremeirchion Tremeirchion (previously known as ''Lleweni'') is a small residential community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. It lies on the B5429 road, to the north east of Denbigh and to the east of St Asaph. The community includes the village of ...

and the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

for the Jesuits. The building was opened for worship a year later.

Handover

On 28 September 1932, the church was taken into the care of the

. At the time, many churches served by the Jesuits were being given to their respective dioceses. Within the same year both Holy Cross Church in

St Helens, Merseyside St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 117,308. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens which had a population of 183,200 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 Census. The town i ...

and St John's Church in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

were handed over to the archdiocese.

Parish

The church has a Mass at 6:00pm on Saturday evening for Sunday and another Mass at 11:00am Sunday morning. There are weekday Masses at 12.00pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Both the Our Lady of Help of Christians and Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph churches have a relationship with Our Lady's Primary School in Prescot, whose mission statement states ' What we hoped to achieve in all that we do is as a living community of God'.About us
from OurLadysPrescot.com retrieved 11 March 2014

Gallery

File:Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph, Prescot.JPG, Doorway File:Entrance statue of Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph, Prescot.JPG, Statue above doorway

References

External links

Our Lady Immaculate & St Joseph Catholic Church

Our Lady's Catholic Primary School site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Joseph Church, Prescot Grade II listed churches in Merseyside Roman Catholic churches in Merseyside Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley Roman Catholic churches completed in 1857 Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside 1857 establishments in England 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Prescot