St James' Church, Birkenhead

St James' Church, Birkenhead
St James' Church, Birkenhead
	St James' Church, Birkenhead, from the south
	St James' Church, Birkenhead Location in Merseyside
	Coordinates: 53°24′07″N3°03′32″W / 53.4019°N 3.0590°W
OS grid reference	SJ 297 900
Location	Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Open Evangelical
Website	St James, Birkenhead
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	28 March 1974
Architect(s)	C. E. Lang, Walter Scott
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1845
Completed	1858
Specifications
Materials	Stone, slate roof
Administration
Parish	St. James with St. Bede, Birkenhead
Deanery	Birkenhead
Archdeaconry	Chester
Diocese	Chester
Province	York

Last updated February 23, 2019

Vicar: Rev Steve Mansfield

St James' Church stands on an island site in Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Birkenhead, the archdeaconry of Chester, and the diocese of Chester. Its benefice is united with that of St Bede.^[1] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.^[2]

Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. Historically in Cheshire, it is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool. In the 2011 census, the Parliamentary constituency of Birkenhead had a population of 88,818.

The Metropolitan Borough of Wirral is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, in North West England. It has a population of 321,238, and encompasses 60 square miles (160 km²) of the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula. Major settlements include Birkenhead, Wallasey, Bebington, Heswall, Hoylake and West Kirby. The city of Liverpool over the Mersey, faces the northeastern side of Wirral. Bordering is the River Mersey to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and the River Dee to the west; the borough of Cheshire West and Chester occupies the remainder of the Wirral Peninsula and borders the borough of Wirral to the south. The borough of Wirral has greater proportions of rural areas than the Liverpool part of Merseyside.

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, takes its name from the River Mersey.

History

The church was designed by C. E. Lang. Building began in 1845 in what was the developing dock area of Birkenhead before there was any other substantial building nearby. For some years it remained unfinished, until it was completed in 1858 by Walter Scott.^[3]

Architecture

Exterior

St James' is constructed in stone with a Welsh slate roof in Early English style. Its plan consists of a nave with a clerestory and a south porch, five-bay north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a three-bay chancel, and a northwest tower with a spire. At the west end of the church are buttresses, three lancet windows and a rose window above them. Along the walls of the aisles are gabled buttresses separating the bays; each bay contains a wide lancet window. Along the clerestory are triple lancets. In the north and south walls of the transepts are paired lancets, and a quatrefoil above. There are flying buttresses between the east ends of the transepts and the nave. Each bay of the chancel contains a pair of lancets, and there are three stepped lancets at the east end. The tower is in three stages, and has clasping buttresses. It has a north doorway with a pair of lancets above. The bell openings are in triple arches, and there are lucarnes on the spire.^[2]

Slate A fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, weakly metamorphic rock

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. Foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering, but instead is in planes perpendicular to the direction of metamorphic compression.

The nave is the central part of a church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term 'nave' is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy.

In architecture, a clerestory is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. The purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.

Interior

Inside the church are five-bay arcades carried on cylindrical columns. The capitals are alternately ring moulded and foliated. There is an oak reredos in the chancel, and another in the south transept. The pulpit is octagonal and in stone. The font is in marble and stands on a mosaic floor. At the west end is an oak screen. The stained glass in the east window dates from 1913 and was made by Jones and Willis. It depicts Christ with Saints James and John.^[2] The three-manual pipe organ was built in 1907 by W. Rushworth and Sons.^[4]

An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by columns, piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians. The walkway may be lined with retail stores. An arcade may feature arches on both sides of the walkway. Alternatively, a blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall. Blind arcades are a feature of Romanesque architecture that influenced Gothic architecture. In the Gothic architectural tradition, the arcade can be located in the interior, in the lowest part of the wall of the nave, supporting the triforium and the clerestory in a cathedral, or on the exterior, in which they are usually part of the walkways that surround the courtyard and cloisters.

Capital (architecture) part of a column (architecture)

In architecture the capital or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column. It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order. These form the three principal types on which all capitals in the classical tradition are based. The Composite order, established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves.

Molding (decorative) class of decorative elements in the ornamentation

Moulding, also known as coving(United Kingdom, Australia), is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster, but may be of plastic or reformed wood. In classical architecture and sculpture, the molding is often carved in marble or other stones.

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References

↑ St James, Birkenhead, Church of England , retrieved 11 December 2013
1 2 3 Historic England, "Church of St James, Birkenhead (1201770)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 11 December 2013
↑ Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 138, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6
↑ Cheshire Birkenhead, St. James (N08304), British Institute of Organ Studies , retrieved 11 December 2013

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[1] St James, Birkenhead, Church of England , retrieved 11 December 2013

[nhl-2] 1 2 3 Historic England, "Church of St James, Birkenhead (1201770)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 11 December 2013

[pev-3] Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Hubbard, Edward; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2011) [1971], Cheshire, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 138, ISBN 978-0-300-17043-6

[4] Cheshire Birkenhead, St. James (N08304), British Institute of Organ Studies , retrieved 11 December 2013