St George's Church is in Everton,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

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 ...

, England. It 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, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, and is the earliest of three churches in

built by John Cragg, who used many components in

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

which were made at his Mersey Iron Foundry. It is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Liverpool, the Liverpool archdeaconry, and the Liverpool North deanery.

History

The

merchant

James Atherton James Atherton (born James Conway; 16 July 1987) is an English actor, known for his roles as Will Savage on ''Hollyoaks'' and Jamie Bowman on ''Coronation Street''. In 2017, he appeared in the stage production of ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too''. In 2 ...

, who later established the seaside resort of New Brighton, Wirral, donated the land for the church. He positioned it at the rear of his villa, atop the hill where the Everton Beacon had stood prior to its destruction by a storm in 1803. The building of the church was enabled by an Act of Parliament, the St. George's Church, Everton Act, which was passed in 1813. The foundation stone was laid on 19 April 1813 and the church was

consecrate Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

d by 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 ...

on 26 October 1814. The architect was Thomas Rickman and the church was built by John Cragg.

Structure

The outer shell of the church is built in stone while the interior is in cast iron. Its plan consists of a west tower, a seven-bay nave with aisles, and a short chancel. Porches flank the tower and chancel. The tower has diagonal

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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es, an arched west door with a three-light window above. The next stage has a clock on three faces and above this are three-light bell-openings which are partly glazed and partly louvred. On the summit is an embattled

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

with

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

s at the corners. All the windows have cast iron

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. Internally the nave has arcades of cast iron and the aisles have galleries. The roof is of cast iron. The architectural style of the church is

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

. Tie rods were added in the 20th century.

Fittings and furniture

Most of the stained glass was destroyed in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The only complete survivor is a window dated 1863 by A. Gibbs. The glass in the east window dates from 1952 and is by Shrigley and Hunt. The memorials include one under the tower to John Rackham who died in 1815 which was designed by Thomas Rickham and carved by S. & J. Franceys, a memorial to Thomas W. Wainwright, a surgeon who died in 1841 with a

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

of the

Good Samaritan In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil. The specific meaning and etymology of the term and its ...

by William Spence, and in the north gallery is a Gothic tabernacle by Emanuel Edward Geflowski to the memory of engineer Walter Fergus MacGregor who died in 1863. The original chair frame bell was made by Ainsworth of

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

. It was restored in 1937 by George Eccles but vandalised in the late 1960s. The present clock was made by Smiths of

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...

and installed in 1973.

Current Affairs at the Church

Church services are held every Sunday at 10am. The church is open the last Saturday of every month between 10am and 4pm for an open day, where the public are welcome to come and have a look round the church, take refreshments, and talk about local history. The church runs a Pantry open every Friday between 8.30am – 11am. Members can get 10 items of food for £3.50. For more information on events at the church please see the church Facebook page.

Notes

References

External links

Photographs at Liverpool Pictorial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Everton, Saint Georges Church Churches in Liverpool Grade I listed buildings in Liverpool Grade I listed churches in Merseyside Anglican Diocese of Liverpool Church of England church buildings in Merseyside Churches completed in 1815 Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Thomas Rickman buildings Cast-iron architecture in the United Kingdom