The Building
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This
large church, built 1888-90, was designed by the influential
Catholic architect Leonard Stokes. It is the only Grade 1 listed
Catholic church in the Diocese of Liverpool .Bryan Little in
(Catholic Churches since 1623) described St Clare's as, 'a true
masterpiece', while Nicolas Pevsner in Buildings of England,
South Lancashire described it as, 'a memorable building'.
Goodhart Rendel(quoted in Pevsner) believed it to be, 'Probably
Stokes' best work.'
The church is one of the
earliest buildings designed by Leonard Stokes and it is an early
example of his Arts and Crafts Gothicism, which revealed a more
individual handling of the Gothic style.
The church received foreign
attention when it was mentioned by Herman Mathesius in Die Neure
Kirckliche Baukunst in England 1901, and St Clare's was
illustrated in the Encyclopedia Britannica (9th Edition) during
the interwar years as an example of modern architecture.
It is indeed a church of
exceptional architectural interest and is one of the most
original buildings of its date in the whole of the country.
The foundation stone of the
church was laid on March 25th 1889 by Bishop O'Reilly.
The church was a gift of
Francis and James Reynolds of the eminent Liverpool Catholic
family of Cotton Brokers. Francis was the Godfather of the
architect of the church, Leonard Stokes. The two brothers,
Francis and James also donated the presbytery and school.
It is interesting to note
that the church was consecrated before it had been formally
opened. The consecration ceremony took place on June 3rd 1890
and the church was opened for public worship on July 20th 1890.
St Clare's has been consecrated longer than any other Catholic
church in Liverpool.
The Contractors for the
building were Messrs. Morrison and sons of Wavertree, Liverpool.
The church is constructed
with bands and dressings of Storeton stone.
The church has a tall
solid-looking vessal nave; a north transept; low and long north
and south chapels; and two porches one at either side of the
west end.
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The West front
of St Clare's is simply treated. The large 7 light
west window dominates the facade. It is set into a
deep splay. The style of the window's tracery could
be classed as 'Late Decorated' or Reticulated. Many
commentators seem to liken the style of windows of
St Clare's to the style as used by the architect G.F.
Bodley. |
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The three
central lights of this west window are divided from
the outer lights by sharply chamfered King mullions,
and the lower panel of each of the seven lights has
a carved stone shield. Above the window is a cross
of Storeton stone set into the brickwork at the top
of the gable. |
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There is one
gabled Porch off the north side of the west end,
which has a small niche above the doorway for a
carved stone Statue of St Clare, |
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The other
similar Porch off the west end of the south side has
a niche above its doorway containing a Statue of St
Francis. |
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The South
Side of St Clare's has seven large 4
lightwindows 'late Decorated'
style tracery . Above the windows on both sides of
the church there is a parapet which has small rises. |
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Between the
south west porch and the long south chapel, there
are confessionals which have a lean to roof.
N.Pevsner remarks of these, that they ,'project
beyond the aisle and are given irregular
fenestration as though they were designed
today.'(p236) |
The long low south chapel(
The Sacred Heart Chapel ) has its own saddleback roof. This
chapel has four round headed 5 light windows. The style of these
windows is unusual.
The North Side of the
church has six 4 light windows.
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The North
Chapel, corresponding to the south chapel, is the
Lady Chapel. This chapel has a large slightly
pointed west window of 7 lights with 'late Decorated
tracery. |
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The tall gabled
north transept has one 3 light window and a large
north west stair turret with a conical roof which
rises up to the level of the transept window. This
stair turret allows access to the organ loft which
is sited on the second level of this transept. |
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In the angle
between the north transept and the nave there is a
slim octagonal bell turrett which has a thin copper
spirelet. |
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Like the west
end, The East End of the church is simply treated.
The east window dominates that end. It is short but
wide and has 9 lights, although the outer 2 lights
on each side of the window are blind. The tracery of
this window is quite complex and the centre light is
in the shape of a key hole. |
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The Stations of
the Cross are oil paintings in wooden frames and
they were installed in 1892 for £300. They are
believed to be German. |
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Like the font,
The Pulpit, is sited in the nave, looks to have
been designed by Stokes. This pulpit is polygonal
and has traceried side panels which slope
outwards |
The Lady Chapel (The north
chapel)
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This chapel is
separated from the nave by the north passage aisles.
The chapel is benched. The marble Lady altar ( of
various light coloured marbles is enclosed by
alabaster (or marble) altar rails, which stretch
right across the width of the church to include
these two side chapels. These rails were erected in
1933. |
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The Lady altar was
consecrated in 1947.
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The statue of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary on this altar is by Mayer and Co of
Munich and dates from 1892. |
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The Pieta at the west end
of the chapel and the statue of St Joseph and Child are both the
work of Mayer and Co. |
The lady chapel has a dark
oak ceiling.
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There is a large 7 light
window with leaded glass at the west end of the chapel and two
stained glass 5 light round headed windows at the north side.
The stained glass in this chapel is thought to be German.
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The window
representing the Nativity is in memory of Ellen
Watkinson |
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The other window is in memory of James
and Mary Shaw |
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There
is a door in this chapel connecting the church to
the presbytery. |
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There is a small
shrine to St Clare with an Italian statue of the Saint and
painted scenic background. |
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The Sacred Heart Chapel
The chapel is separated
from the nave by the south passage aisle.
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The marble Sacred Heart
altar was consecrated in 1947. The Altar is enclosed by the
rails which stretch across the width of the church. The altar
has a brass tabernacle and six brass candlesticks. |
In the chapel there is also
a statue of the Sacred Heart which is by Mayer and Co of Munich.
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This chapel has
four 5 light round headed windows, all with English
stained glass. All these windows have glass donated
by the Honan family. |
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The oldest
window in the chapel is the Sacred Heart window,
installed in 1906 |
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The second
oldest is the Catharine of Sienna window, erected in 1912. |
Presbytery
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The presbytery,
which was completed after the church was built, was
also designed by Leonard Stokes. It is a grade II
listed building. The cottage style presbytery
compliments the church very well and the pair of
them form a fine group, because the presbytery is as
free in its style of Gothic as the church is.
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N.Pevsner singles out the carved label stops of the
hoodmould of the front door of the house as being a
fine early example of Art Nouveau decoration. |
The Interior of St Clare's
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The interior
of Stoke's church is fairly large and will
accommodate c.600.The plan of the interior comprises
a long nave with aisles, which are merely
passageways, and these aisles seperate the nave from
the two side chapels. These side chapels are fairly
large and they have benches.The sanctuary is quite
shallow. |
The style of the
architecture of this church is interesting because it is an
early example of a break from the rigidity of the Victorian
Gothic. It is a prime example of a more simple and liberal
treatment of Gothic.
Equally interesting is the layout of the interior which shows a
new approach to the planning of the congregational space.
Leonard Stokes took the Medieval 3 aisle plan and modified it by
designing aisles which are not meant as areas of additional
congregational space, but which are simply passageways for
processions etc. All the benches are in the nave or the side
chapels, and not in the aisles where pillars can and do often
obscure a full view of the Mass,
The
tall long 9 bay nave has deep internal buttresses which are
pierced to form these passageways. The
nave arcade of round headed arches rests on lozenge shaped stone
piers placed traverse to the nave, and above the passages there
are continuous galleries. Above the galleries there are the
large nave windows.
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It is said that Stoke's did have plans to
continue the passageways around the sanctuary in order to create
an ambulatory, but financial considerations forced him to
abandon this plan.
For the sake of
economy Stokes had to change his plans to have a stone dressed
interior. Instead all the walls are plastered.
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The
internal buttresses help to support the waggon roof which has
dark wooden ribs.The panels between these ribs were also once
dark wood, but they are now painted a creamy white colour to
match the general colouring of the plastered walls in the nave. |
All
the aisles have parquet flooring (a later addition ) while the
bench areas are boarded.
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The main 7
light west window has leaded glass. |
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Beneath this window there is the font (of marble or alibaster)
which is of a simple design. It has a copper cover. The font was
probably designed by Stokes and it is illustrated in B. Little's
(Catholic Churches since 1623). The font is enclosed by some
metal railings. |
At
the west end of the centre aisle there are two marble stones on
pedestals.
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The
windows on either side of the nave are framed by the internal
buttresses. These large 4 light windows have late Decorated
style tracery and leaded glass. There are eight of these windows
on the south side of the church, although the far east window is
blind. The north side has six of these 4 light windows. The last
two eastern bays of this side, above the north chapel,
constitute the organ loft. |
After the church was built one parish priest of St Clare's did
construct an organ loft at the west end of the nave, but during
the 1920's the organ was restored to it's original, and present,
position above the north chapel and close to the sanctuary.
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The
confessionals of which there are three are
positioned off the south passageway. The wooden
confessional doors have simple strapwork hinges. |
Sanctuary
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The
alabaster or marble altar rails were erected in 1933 in memory
of Canon Crook. |
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There is a tall simple undecorated chancel arch.The
sanctuary is fairly shallow. The sanctuary has wooden block
flooring and marble steps.The
sanctuary has been reordered although not dramatically. The
simple alabaster or marble altar and reredos were erected during
the period 1922-28 when Bishop Dobson was parish priest. In
the 1970's the altar was separated from the reredos and moved
forward.
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The
magnificent painted triptych above the reredos was
erected in the year that the church was opened.
Apparently it was executed partly in London and
partly at Liverpool University. |
On the north and south side of the sanctuary there is a tall
2 light window, although the north window is blind.
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The 9 light
east window is set high up in the sanctuary wall.
The tracery
of this window is slightly different from what
Stokes had first planned. The central light of the
window is key shaped and the extreme two lights on
each side are blind. The stained glass erected in
1908 and representing the Crucifixion is in memory
of the church's benefactors, Francis and James
Reynolds, |
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