St Matthew's Church is in York Street, Bromborough Pool, Wirral,

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 was originally a non-denominational chapel for the workers at the nearby candle factory, and later became an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, but it closed for worship in 2007. 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, ...

as a designated Grade II

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 ...

History

The church was built in 1889–90 and designed by Leach of London for the use of the workers of Price's Patent Candle Company. Bromborough Pool was an early

model village A model village is a mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. "Model" implies an ideal to which other developments could aspire. Although the villages ...

created in 1853 by George and James Wilson, founders of the company. The church was originally a non-denominational chapel, and later became

. It was a chapel in the

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of St Barnabas, Bromborough, but closed for worship in 2007.

Architecture

St Matthew's is constructed in rock-faced stone with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings and a tiled roof. Its plan consists of a four-

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'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

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 ...

, a south porch, a three-bay

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

, a north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

, and a turret in the angle in the north corner of the nave and transept. The west window, the east window, the nave and transept windows are all triple lancets, and along the sides of the chancel are paired lancets. The turret is octagonal and has a pointed entrance, louvred bell openings, and a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

spirelet surmounted by an iron cross.

Appraisal

The church was designated as a Grade II

on 2 December 1986. Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing and is applied to buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest".

Present day and governance

Until its closure in 2007 the church was in the parish and benefice of Bromborough, the deanery of Wirral, South, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the

diocese of Chester The Diocese of Chester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York covering the pre-1974 county of Cheshire and therefore including the Wirral and parts of Stockport, Trafford and Tameside. History Ancient diocese Before the si ...

. Since it was closed, work has been carried out to make plans for its reopening for worship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bromborough Pool, Saint Matthew's Church Churches completed in 1890 19th-century Church of England church buildings Churches in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral Church of England church buildings in Merseyside Grade II listed churches in Merseyside Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Merseyside Diocese of Chester

History

Architecture

Appraisal

Present day and governance

See also

References