All Saints Church, Thornton Hough facts for kids

Quick facts for kids All Saints Church, Thornton Hough
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OS grid reference	SJ 305 809
Location	Raby Road, Thornton Hough, Merseyside
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	1867
Founder(s)	Joseph Hirst
Consecrated	5 May 1868
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	2 October 1986
Architect(s)	John Kirk and Sons
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1867
Completed	1868
Construction cost	£8,500
Specifications
Spire height	120 feet (37 m)
Materials	Sandstone, slate roof
Administration
Parish	All Saints, Thornton Hough
Deanery	Wirral, South
Archdeaconry	Chester
Diocese	Chester
Province	York

All Saints Church is a beautiful old church located in Raby Road, Thornton Hough, Merseyside, England. It's an active Anglican church, which means it's part of the Church of England. This church is a special building, recognized as a Grade II listed building on the National Heritage List for England. This means it's an important historical building that needs to be protected.

History of All Saints Church

Building the Church

All Saints Church was built between 1867 and 1868. A man named Joseph Hirst paid for the entire church. The design was created by architects John Kirk and Sons from Huddersfield.

Joseph Hirst owned a woollen mill. He bought a house near Thornton Hough to relax from his busy work. He also bought land in the village for £600 to build the church. The first stone was laid in March 1867.

Cost and Dedication

The church building cost about £8,500. This was a lot of money back then! On May 5, 1868, the church was officially opened and blessed. This ceremony was led by William Jacobson, who was the bishop of Chester.

Joseph Hirst didn't just pay for the church. He also paid for the vicarage (the priest's house), the school, and the school house. He even paid for a school and school house in a nearby village called Raby. Later, in the early 1900s, a new room called a vestry was added to the church.

Architecture of the Church

Outside the Church

The church is made from red sandstone with lighter stone details. Its roof is made of slate with red tiles on the top. The church's style is called Geometrical Gothic. It has a cross-shaped layout.

The church has a main area called a nave with four sections. There's a porch on the northwest side. It also has north and south transepts, which are the arms of the cross shape. The chancel is at the east end, with an organ room on the north side and a vestry on the south.

The Tower and Spire

On the southwest side, there is a tall tower with a pointed roof called a broach spire. The tower has strong buttresses at its corners. It has windows with two lights and clock faces. There are actually five clock faces! One is higher up on the south side so Joseph Hirst could see it from his house.

At the top of the tower, there's a decorative edge called a cornice with small towers called pinnacles. The spire has two levels of small windows called lucarnes. The spire reaches a height of 120 feet (37 m).

Windows and Details

Along the sides of the church, you can see a decorative band called a Lombard frieze. There are also more buttresses and windows with two lights. These windows have beautiful stone patterns called tracery. The large window at the west end has five lights.

The transepts have windows with three lights and a special spherical triangle window above them. The chancel has a three-light window at the east end and two-light windows on its sides. There's a narrow, pointed window called a lancet window in the organ room and a three-light window in the vestry.

Inside the Church

Inside, the font (where baptisms happen) and the reredos (a screen behind the altar) are made of Caen stone. They were created by T. Ruddock and show scenes from the Bible.

The church has many beautiful stained glass windows:

• The east window, made in 1868, is by Clayton and Bell.
• In the south transept, there's a window from 1912 by H. G. Hiller. It shows Saint Michael and angels.
• The west window is a war memorial from around 1920. It also shows Saint Michael. The artist is unknown.
• Other windows were made by Powell's, A. R. Fisher (1978), William Davies (1997), and Petri Anderson (2003).

In the south transept, there is a fancy Gothic monument. It honors Joseph Hirst, who passed away in 1874. The church's first pipe organ was made by Gray and Davison. This was replaced in 1912 by a new organ from Norman and Beard. It was updated in 1985 by George Sixsmith.

See also

• Listed buildings in Thornton Hough