St Matthew's Church is in York Street,

Bromborough Pool Bromborough Pool, also known as Bromborough Pool Village and Price's Village, is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England, to the north of Bromborough. It is situated on the Wirral Peninsula, to the south of Bebin ...

, Wirral,

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

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

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

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, an ...

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 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 type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

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 finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

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

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 and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

, 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 churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

, 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 rock. ...

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