St. Elizabeth, Scarisbrick

Introduction

The church was built in 1888 by the architectural firm Pugin and Pugin. The church was built by the Marquis de Castéja in memory of his wife Eliza.

History

The Catholic tradition in Scarisbrick goes back before 1814, when Mass was said in the chapel at Scarisbrick Hall, with the first record of a chapel there dating to 1420. In the 17th and eighteenth centuries Scarisbrick Hall operated as a clandestine Jesuit junior school. Before St Elizabeth's opened, from 1814 Mass was said in the church of St Mary, formerly the village's old tithe barn. Since its opening there have been several changes, most notably the installation of the new altar in the late 1960s in the wake of Vatican II.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of rock-faced red sandstone with a red tiled roof, in the Decorated style. The church has a carved panel with Gothic lettering 'Sancta Elizabetha Ecclesia 1888'. The church has a large elaborately carved wooden pulpit, probably Belgian, mid- to later seventeenth century.

The church contains many stained glass windows, statues and carvings reflecting the influence of Peter Paul Pugin and the French ancestry of the Castéja family. The north gable end has a 2-centred arched doorway with a recessed door and hoodmould with foliated stop, linked to a dripband carried over 3 cusped lancets at ground floor. Above the doorway is a large traceried 4-light window under a hoodmould with figured stops, a gable dripband, and a traceried gable eye. On the east side the buttressed 4-bay aisle has square-headed windows of 1, 3, 3 and 2 cusped lights, and the nave has gablets containing wide arched traceried windows.

The apse is 5-sided, with a window of 2 cinquefoil lights in each side, that in the centre raised into a gablet, and all under hoodmoulds with figured stops. The west side has tall 2-light windows with mouchette tracery, at the north end a 5-sided baptistery with cusped lancets, and at the south end a large gabled sacristy. The church contains a stained-glass window of St Benedict.

Music and liturgy

The parish maintains good links with local Christians of other denominations. The parish has run joint courses on the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and a joint Alpha course. The parish organises courses such as the Alpha Course and the Pilgrim Course.

The parish celebrates communal services of Reconciliation during Advent and Lent. The parish follows the Liverpool Archdiocese sacramental preparation programme, With You Always.

Parish life

The parish's secondary school children join Amplify, the youth group based at St Anne’s, which allows them to attain their Duke of Edinburgh medals and join the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes as helpers. Older teenagers have the opportunity to join Animate, an archdiocesan group of young people who commit to service for a year or so, living at Lowe House in St Helens.

The parish has a close contact with its Catholic schools, supporting the faith of young people. The parish is served by the monks of Douai Abbey in Berkshire. The parish's finance committee organises a quinquennial survey to help maintain the fabric of the church buildings.