St Mary's Church, Knowsley

History

The church was built in 1843–44 to a design by Edmund Sharpe for the 13th Earl of Derby at a cost of about £20,000 (). It was consecrated on 6 June 1844 by Rt Revd John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester. In 1871–72 a memorial chapel to the 14th Earl of Derby, designed by Paley and Austin, was added. It cost £3,000, which included the cost of a monument with a figure by Matthew Noble. In 1892–93 a new vestry and a new east window by Paley, Austin and Paley were built. An organ was installed in the Derby chapel in 1913. In 1981–82 the church was reordered, a nave altar was introduced, and meeting and service facilities were installed in the base of the tower.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in sandstone with freestone dressings and has a stone tile roof. Its architectural style is mainly Early English. The plan of the church consists of a west steeple, a five-bay nave with north and south aisles and a clerestory, a north porch, north and south transepts, a five-bay chancel with a north chapel (formerly the Derby chapel), and a south vestry. The tower is in three stages, with angle buttresses. In the bottom stage is a west doorway with lancet windows above. The middle stage also contains windows with pointed arches. In the top stage are two-light bell openings containing quatrefoil tracery, flanked by blind arches. The tower is surmounted by a broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes. Each bay on the south side of both the aisles and the clerestory contains a pair of windows. The transepts have buttresses, a corbel table, two-light north and south windows in Decorated style, and small west windows. The chancel also has a corbel table. Its east window has five lights with Perpendicular tracery, and the two two-light south windows are in Decorated style. The north chapel is also in Decorated style, and has a four-light north window. Along the north side of the church are three-light windows, and a frieze of quatrefoils. The vestry has a square-headed window and an east doorway re-set from an earlier doorway.

Interior

The nave arcades are carried on quatrefoil piers with foliage capitals. The chancel arch includes carvings of Queen Victoria and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The nave is floored with 19th-century relief tiles, and there are encaustic tiles in the chapel.

External features

The churchyard contains the war graves of a soldier of World War I, and two soldiers of World War II.

References

Citations Sources

• Although this is self-published, it is a scholarly work and fully referenced throughout. (As of 2011 it is available only as a CD.)

References

1. {{NHLE
2. "Deanery of Huyton". [[Anglican Diocese of Liverpool.
3. {{Harvnb. Pollard. Pevsner. 2006
4. {{Harvnb. Hughes. 2010
5. {{Harvnb. Brandwood. Austin. Hughes. Price. 2012
6. [[Transept]]s designed by [[Edward Graham Paley. Edward Paley]], Sharpe's successor in the architectural practice, were added in 1860.{{Harvnb. Brandwood. Austin. Hughes. Price. 2012
7. {{Harvnb. Brandwood. Austin. Hughes. Price. 2012
8. {{Harvnb. Brandwood. Austin. Hughes. Price. 2012
9. Inside the church is an intricately carved bench from [[Knowsley Hall]] which is dated 1646, and [[Coat of arms of England. Lavers and Barraud]], and a window in the south wall of the chancel of 1923 by [[James Powell and Sons. manual]] organ was made in 1913 by [[Rushworth and Dreaper]] of Liverpool.{{National Pipe Organ Register
10. "KNOWSLEY (ST. MARY) CHURCHYARD". [[Commonwealth War Graves Commission]].