St John's Church, Egremont
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox church | name = St John's Church, Egremont| fullname = | image = St John's Church, Wallasey (6).JPG| imagesize = | imagealt = | caption = Entrance front of St John's Church, Egremont| pushpin map = Merseyside| pushpin map alt = | pushpin mapsize = 200 | pushpin label position = | map caption = Location in Merseyside| location = Liscard Road, Egremont, Merseyside|country=England| coordinates = {{coord|53.4162|-3.0335|region:GB_type:landmark|display=title}} | osgraw = SJ 314 915| denomination = Anglican| consecrated date = 31 September 1831| functional status = Redundant| heritage designation = Grade II| designated date = 20 January 1988| architect = Henry Turberville Edwards| architectural type = Church| style = Neoclassical| groundbreaking = | completed date = 1833| materials = Stone }}
St John's Church is in Liscard Road, Egremont, Merseyside, England. It is a redundant Anglican parish church, formerly in the diocese of Chester.{{Citation | publication-date = 1 October 2012 | title = Diocese of Chester: All Schemes| series = Church Commissioners/Statistics| publisher = Church of England| page = 3| format = PDF | url = http://www.churchofengland.org/media/810427/chester.pdf | access-date =12 January 2014}} The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.{{NHLE |num= 1258217|desc= Church of St John, Wallasey|accessdate= 12 January 2014|mode=cs2}}
History
St John's was built in 1832–33, and was designed by Henry Turberville Edwards; it is his only known work.{{Citation | last = Hartwell | first = Clare |last2 = Hyde | first2 = Matthew |last3 = Hubbard | first3 = Edward | author3-link=Edward Hubbard (architectural historian) | last4 =Pevsner | first4 =Nikolaus | author4-link =Nikolaus Pevsner | series= The Buildings of England| title = Cheshire | publisher =Yale University Press| year =2011| orig-year=1971| location =New Haven and London| pages = 650–651 | isbn =978-0-300-17043-6 }} The church was built on land owned by Sir John Tobin, whose son became the first vicar. The church was consecrated on 31 October 1831 by the Rt. Revd. John Bird Sumner, bishop of Chester, and it opened for worship on 19 May 1833. In 1881 it was restored by Cornelius Sherlock; this included removing the galleries, replacing box pews with benches, moving the organ, enclosing the chancel, and adding two new windows.{{Citation | url = http://www.historyofwallasey.co.uk/wallasey/Wallasey_Churches_Egremont/index.html| title = History of Wallasey Churches: Egremont| access-date = 12 January 2014| publisher = History of Wallasey}} In 1942 the church was damaged by bomb blast, and was repaired in the 1950s with a new roof. It was declared redundant on 1 July 2004, and approval for conversion into residential use was agreed on 6 December 2006. As of August 2018 the church was put into private ownership with the intention of reopening it as Church again.
Architecture
=Exterior=
The church is built in stone from Storeton quarry, and is in Neoclassical style. On the entrance front is a Doric portico consisting of four fluted columns without bases, carrying an entablature with a triglyph frieze and a pediment. Flanking the portico are windows with architraves and pediments. There are six similar windows along each side of the church, and running round the church above them is a panelled parapet. At the rear, the narrower chancel projects under a pediment. On its rear wall is a blind window with four pilasters and an entablature with wreathes.
=Interior=
Inside the church is an elliptical chancel arch. When the building was in use as a church, it had a tripartite painted reredos, and there were paintings round the walls of the nave. The font was in alabaster, it stood on three marble steps, and was supported by carved angels. It was decorated with cherubs' heads and gadrooning. The timber pulpit was part of a former two-decker. The ceiling has a span of {{convert|63|ft|6|in|m|1}}, which makes it the largest unsupported ceiling in Merseyside. The original pipe organ was made by Bewsher and Fleetwood and had two manuals.{{National Pipe Organ Register|id=R01366|mode=cs2|access-date=29 June 2020}} This was enlarged to three manuals in 1902 by Hele and Company. It was further enlarged in 1925 by Henry Willis, repaired following bomb damage in the 1950s by Rushworth and Dreaper, cleaned in the 1970s by Cowin, and restored in 1999 by Harrison and Harrison.{{National Pipe Organ Register|id=N08095|mode=cs2|access-date=29 June 2020}} After the church was closed, the organ was moved by David Wells to St James' Church, New Brighton.{{National Pipe Organ Register|id=R01368|mode=cs2|access-date=29 June 2020}}
=Graveyard=
The war memorial in the churchyard was designated as a Grade II listed building on 4 January 2022. The memorial commemorates the First World War 1914-1918. It had a brass plaque inside the church but has been removed.It commemorated 96 people who lost their lives from the parish in WW1.{{NHLE |num= 1479294|desc= Egremont War Memorial, Wallasey|access-date= 20 January 2022|mode=cs2}}
See also
References
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Category:Churches completed in 1833
Category:19th-century Church of England church buildings
Category:Grade II listed churches in Merseyside