Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception - Birkenhead

Introduction

The church was built between 1860 and 1862 by Edward Welby Pugin, with the chancel added in 1876-7 by Pugin and Pugin. The church was designed by the nationally significant architect E W Pugin and completed by his brothers, Peter Paul Pugin and Cuthbert Pugin.

History

In December 1854 the second mission in Birkenhead was opened. On 8 December 1860, Bishop Brown laid the foundation stone of the new church designed by the architect Edward Welby Pugin. It was the first church in the Diocese to be erected in honour of the Immaculate Conception. On 12 March 1941, the presbytery was destroyed and the Parish Priest, Canon Tallon and his housekeeper lost their lives.

The church was restored in 1951 by Reynolds & Scott following severe bomb damage sustained during the Second World War. Since 2006 the churches of Holy Cross, Our Lady and Saint Paul have been united as one parish.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of rock-faced sandstone with red-sandstone ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof, in Decorated Gothic style. The church is enclosed on the west and north sides by a low sandstone wall surmounted by cast-iron railings. The church contains a richly carved sandstone pulpit of 1875 with depictions of the Annunciation, Nativity and Coronation of Our Lady. The stained-glass clerestory windows in the sanctuary were badly damaged by the 1941 bombing and were replaced by Hardman with some substitution of the original saints.

The church is aligned north-west to south-east with a polygonal apse at the ritual east end. The west end has a large rose window, five narrow trefoil-arched lancets, and a pointed-arched doorway with a carved and painted tympanum. The tower's north wall has a decorative canopied niche containing a statue of the Virgin Mary above a trefoil-arched window. The east wall above the sacristies has a carved roundel containing a coat of arms and the date '1877'.

The nave arcades are formed of tall pointed arches supported by polished-granite columns with alternate plain and foliated sandstone capitals. A carved font is constructed of the same materials as the pulpit but with black rather than pink marble. The side aisles contain large carved and gilded timber Stations of the Cross. The side chapels have altars, reredoses and altar rails of stone and marble, with reredoses incorporating a central statue niche flanked by painted and gilded trefoil-arched panels.

The sanctuary has a decorative tiled floor and its marble altar rails and decorative metal gates were reconstructed in the 1950s. A plain modern trestle-table altar has been placed in front of the original sandstone and marble altar, which is set upon a marble platform. The church has a large choir and organ gallery with a panelled front at the west end of the nave.