Our Heritage and Early History

Our Heritage and Early History

English Martyrs’ Church, in the parish of Holy Apostles and Martyrs, is in Wallasey Village, Wirral.

The parish community of Holy Apostles and Martyrs recognises that they have a responsibility to care for their parish and church and to be thankful for those who oversaw its development at the very start of the 20^th century. It is our duty to ensure that the heritage and history of the parish and church buildings are maintained for future generations.

As with earlier generations, the current clergy and parishioners will continue to care for what they have inherited and will do whatever they can to ensure that the English Martyrs’ Church continues to serve the local communities.

Heritage can take many forms; it is not just about the clergy and parishioners, wherever they come from. The church building, its sculptures, artefacts, and historic records; the local community; and the talents and traditions that have been brought to the parish by the clergy, parishioners, and the wider community have all contributed to our heritage.

We recognise that our church is a nationally important historic building that is graded II* by Historic England and is one of only five local buildings at this grade. Designed by Francis Xavier Velarde, the noted Liverpool architect, the present church opened in 1953. Velarde designed a total of 18 churches, 14 in the northwest of England and four in the London area. A recent restoration and repair project to the exterior confirms our commitment to look after the building. The project was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund which awarded a grant of £502,500 towards the cost of the restoration. We intend in the not-too-distant future to run a project to restore the interior of the church.

Following the Reformation a substantial but dwindling minority of people from the 16th to early 19th century remained Roman Catholics in England – the church organisation remained illegal until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829.

In 1841 the Catholics of Wallasey had to go to Liverpool for Mass and they would cross the River Mersey to go to St. Mary’s Church in Edmund Street, Liverpool. In 1841, the first parish in Wallasey, St. Alban’s, Liscard was founded. This was before the re-establishment of the Hierarchy, in the days of the Vicars Apostolic, the whole area locally being part of the Northern District. In that year, Father John Guest came from St. Anthony’s in Scotland Road, Liverpool to say Mass for the Catholics of Liscard and the surrounding area in a room at the ‘Hen and Chickens’, a public house in King Street, Egremont.

Ten years later, on July 27^th 1851, the first Bishop of Shrewsbury, Bishop James Brown, wrote in his diary:

“This day will be memorable, not only in the Diocese of Shrewsbury as that of the consecration of its first bishop, but also in the annals of the English Catholic Church as the day on which the body of the new Hierarchy was completed and all the Sees filled up.”

A second entry dated September 11^th of the same year reads:

“The first meeting of the clergy of the new Diocese of Shrewsbury was held in Birkenhead. At the meeting, it was unanimously agreed to petition the Holy See to place the Diocese under the special patronage of our Blessed Lady and to permit us to call her our Patroness under the title ‘Help of Christians’.”

From St. Albans, the Seacombe parish of Our Lady and St. Joseph was founded in 1860 and the New Brighton parish of Ss Peter and Paul in 1879. In May 1902 Father (later Canon) William Baines, from New Brighton, came to say Mass at a house named Wallasey View, at 59 St George’s Road in Wallasey Village.

The house standing on an acre and a quarter of land was purchased from local businessman John Edwin Hulse by Canon Stanton of New Brighton and had been acquired for the future parish.

In June 1906 Canon Stanton (pictured right) took up residence in Wallasey View becoming the first resident priest of English Martyrs’.

In 1907, the congregation of Wallasey Village, thought to number about 100, was served by the ‘iron church’, which was opened on June 9 by Bishop Allen. The church in the grounds of 59 St George’s Road was constructed of corrugated iron on a timber frame, hence the description ’iron church’.

The chalice is inscribed on the underside of the base.

In 1937 the appointment of Fr. Francis Jones as assistant priest was an indication of how the parish was growing. In 1937/38, there were 118 children of school age in the parish, and negotiations were held with the local Education Committee; however, owing to the international situation, a request was made to defer the building of the school.

In the late 1930s, plans had been drawn up for the new church but with the outbreak of war in September 1939, the carrying out of the plans came to a standstill. In eight years, £12,000 had been raised towards the building of the church.

After the war, in view of the provisions of the 1944 Education Act, it was decided not to build a school but to demolish Wallasey View and build the church on the land adjacent to the iron church using plans drawn up by Liverpool architect Francis Xavier Velarde. The delay in building the church on the Rocklands site proved to be fortuitous. Had the church been built on the proposed site, adjacent to the Black Horse public house in Wallasey Village, it would probably have suffered considerable damage, if not complete destruction, when a land mine exploded nearby in the blitz of 12^th March 1941.

Fr. John Mooney was appointed as assistant priest in 1949 when Fr. Molloy was transferred to another parish, and in 1951 Fr. Mooney was appointed as the Bishop’s Secretary and he was replaced by Fr. John Daley.

November 1951 saw building work on the new church start. The foundation stone was laid on Sunday, May 4, 1952.

An extract from the weekly Parish Notice Book reads:

“Sunday 4^th May 1952
Patronal Feast of English Martyrs. Golden Jubilee of the Parish, May 1902–May 1952
Solemn High Mass at 11 o’clock. Sermon by Mgr. Provost Curran. “Te Deum” of thanksgiving after Mass.

Ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the new church at 3 pm. All parishioners are asked to assemble at the site and to follow the directions of the stewards. Benediction will follow the ceremony, and afterwards the site will be open to inspection, but again, please follow the directions of the stewards“

The foundation stone shows that Bishop John Murphy conducted the ceremony of the stone’s laying. However, on the day of the ceremony, the Bishop was indisposed and the ceremony was conducted by Fr. Peter Coughlan.

The inscription on the trowel reads:

“PRESENTED BY COUNCILLOR W O HANNAFORD JP    
MAYOR-ELECT ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAYING
OF THE FOUNDATION STONE CHURCH OF ENGLISH
MARTYRS WALLASEY
4^th MAY 1952“

The following year, the church opened on 31^st August 1953

An extract from the weekly Parish Notice Book reads:

“Sunday 30^th August 1953 14^th Pentecost
There will be three Masses in the old church tomorrow at 7, 7.30 & 8 am. At 11 am, His Lordship the Bishop will bless and open the new church. The ceremony begins with the blessing of the exterior walls, and until this is completed, no one is allowed inside the church. Parishioners are requested to leave clear passage around the church and not place bicycles in the way. During Pontifical Mass, Fr. P. Deery CSSR will preach. The whole ceremony should be over between 12.30 and 12.45 pm.
There will be devotions and Benediction at 7.30 pm and we hope all the parish will be present.“

In 1954 Fr. John Daley left the parish, and Fr. Francis Furlong was appointed as assistant priest. The new presbytery and link corridor to the church were built. The Rocklands Presbytery was sold in 1956.

Parish records show

1905 to 1953 Baptisms numbered 883
1911 to 1953 Weddings numbered 390

English Martyrs’ Church is a significant building and our restoration project had to adhere to specific requirements before work could even commence. These requirements often go beyond normal building practices and may require specialised craftsmen and materials. The underlying objective is always to preserve as much of the heritage of the building and its design as possible and to keep it secure for the future.

To begin our restoration process, a comprehensive survey and assessment of the church was carried out. Some issues were self-evident, such as water leakage through the main roof, while others, such as the physical condition of the roof tiles, required further investigation. The analysis determined that the concrete tiles had reached the end of their natural life and required replacement while preserving the appearance and heritage of the church. The final selection needed to be approved by the Historic Churches Committee; in fact, the only difference between the old and new tiles was the size. The original tiles measured 18 x 27 inches whereas the largest now available are 18 x 24 inches.

Just a couple of minutes walk from the centre of Wallasey Village the church is a local landmark; this is particularly noticeable at night when the lantern at the top of the tall campanile is lit and is visible from some distance away.

Velarde designed the church in the Romanesque Modernist style, and although the building is not as old as other churches in the area, it was constructed at a time of post-war austerity and building material shortages. Although the building has been systematically maintained, certain parts have reached the end of their design life (which is why refurbishment, supported by Heritage Fund, is so important), and it remains a very important example of its type both in the exterior design and the internal furnishings.

The exterior is recognisable as the archetypal Velarde style (he built 13 churches in the Northwest and four in the London Diocese of Westminster) and the interior is also typical of Velarde with Art Deco furnishings, statuary by Herbert Tyson Smith, Philip Lindsey Clark and David John, a spectacular Zigzag Moderne ceiling (Zigzag Moderne is the first of the three sub-genre of the ‘arts décoratifs’; the term Art Deco was not coined into general usage until 1968). The statuary is of some importance, and the cast mullions of some of the windows are significant examples, as are the relief statues of English martyrs that adorn the western and eastern elevations (described in Velarde’s sketches as St. Thomas à Beckett, Elizabethan Priest, Elizabethan Lady and An English Courtier).

The mullion design was described by Andrew Crompton and Dominic Wilkinson in their 2019 paper, in which they say of Velarde:

“He may have been the last British architect to use the sculpted human form in his work. Today his buildings seem fresh and elegant, but also poignant as they evoke the 1950s and so many of them are threatened.”

F. X. Velarde, an English Expressionist, Andrew Crompton & Dominic Wilkinson, The Journal of Architecture, Volume 24, Number 3. 2019

During the course of researching and preparing our application for a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we received advice and encouragement from local, regional, and national heritage groups and individuals. Volunteers from the parish worked with our project team to develop and deliver a range of activities to people of all ages to help them learn and understand the importance of the heritage of the church and its place in the local community.