Our Lady Star of the Sea and St Joseph

Introduction

The Seacombe Mission was founded in 1860 from the parish of St Alban's, Liscard, when Canon Sherwood began celebrating Mass in a house in Chapel Street.

History

In 1887 a new parish priest was appointed and Edmund Kirby was commissioned to design the new church. During World War II the church suffered slight bomb damage and required repairs and renovation including new benches and Stations of the Cross. In 2006 the church underwent a major re-ordering, with masses moved to the presbytery and school hall during the work. Arrangements for confirmation are announced at an appropriate time in the year by the Parish Priest and communicated in the Parish Newsletter.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is stone with a slate roof, comprising a single vessel nave and chancel, aisles, chapels and baptistry. The interior has 5-bay arcades on round piers and a waggon roof. The church has an octagonal stone pulpit on clustered shafts with cusped arches and marble shafts. The chancel has marble panelling, a marble altar and a reredos with aedicule.

The church has good stained glass to the chancel. Edmund Kirby designed the church, which was built in 1898-9. A canted timber west gallery stands over the porch. The north aisle includes two gabled transeptal bays that serve as confessionals, each with a rose window.

The south aisle has paired lancets, with the central pair divided by a weathered buttress, and single lancets at the ends with end buttresses. The chancel has a canted end with a three-light window and two lancets on both the north and south sides. A gabled north porch contains the north entrance, and a south canted baptistry has trefoil-headed windows. The north chapel has a two-light north window, while the south chapel has a two-light south window and a rose window in the west gable.

The five-bay nave has lancets with splayed reveals, paired to form a clerestory. The chancel arch is flanked by canopied statues. Timber parclose screens stand in the arches leading to the chapels.

The parish has a Parish Meeting Minutes group. The three steps up to the back altar represent the three times Jesus fell on his way to Calvary.