St Bartholomew's Church, Rainhill

St Bartholomew's Church

Front entrance
St Bartholomew's Church
Location in Merseyside
Coordinates: 53°24′27″N 2°45′03″W / 53.4076°N 2.7509°W / 53.4076; -2.7509
OS grid reference SJ5017890352
Location Rainhill, Merseyside
Country United Kingdom
Denomination Roman Catholic
Website StBartsRainhill.co.uk
History
Founder(s) Bartholomew Bretherton
Dedication Saint Bartholomew
Consecrated 24 August 1840
Architecture
Status Active
Functional status Parish church
Heritage designation Grade II listed
Designated 28 January 1971[1]
Architect(s) Joshua Dawson
Groundbreaking April 1838
Construction cost £8,000
Administration
Deanery St Helens South[2]
Archdiocese Liverpool
Province Liverpool

St Bartholomew's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in Rainhill, Merseyside. It was built in 1838-40 in the style of the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola in Rome.[3] It is a Grade II listed building and is situated on the A57 road (Warrington Road) leading out of Rainhill and is next door to Loyola Hall. It was described by Nicholas Pevsner as 'The noblest Catholic church in South Lancashire'.[4]

History

Origin

The church was founded by Bartholomew Bretherton (d. 1857) who was the owner of the family coaching business and main landowner in Rainhill.[5] He lived in Rainhill Hall next to the church that became Loyola Hall, when the Jesuits moved there in 1923. As well as being a business and landowner, he was also uncle of Bartholomew Bretherton (1812-1866) a winner of the Grand National in 1840.[6]

Before it was built, the Catholics in Rainhill had to travel to the Jesuit church in Prescot, Our Lady Help of Christians Church or St Bede's Church in Widnes.[3]

Construction

Bartholomew Bretherton chose the location where the church would be built, on the Warrington Road, in direct sight of anyone travelling down the main road through the village. He also chose the design for the church and wanted it to be dedicated to his own patron saint, Saint Bartholomew. The design he chose was by a local architect, Joshua Dawson. The architect went to Rome to look at the Church of San Bartolomeo all'Isola there. In 1838, building started and the stones were taken from a local quarry that the Bretherton family owned. The foundation stone was laid by Bartholomew Bretherton's daughter, Mrs Mary Gerard in April 1838.[3]

The building was completed two years later. The total cost was £8,000 and it was formally opened and consecrated on 24 August by the Vicar Apostolic of the Lancashire District, George Hilary Brown.[3]

Nine years later, in 1849, an Italian-style Bell tower was added to the side of the church.[4]

Parish

Surrounding the church is a cemetery. Buried there are the members of the Stapleton-Bretherton family who owned the surrounding land and Rainhill Hall. They include Evelyn, Princess Blücher (1876-1960) and her husband Prince Gebhard Blücher von Wahlstatt (1865-1931), a descendent of General-Field-Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742–1819) who commanded the Prussian Army at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.[7]

Also buried in the church cemetery is Kenneth Dewar (1879-1964) who was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy and was in the Battle of Jutland. He was married to Gertrude Stapleton-Bretherton, Evelyn's sister.

The church shares a priest with the nearby St Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Sutton Manor. St Bartholomew's has Sunday Mass at 5:15pm on Saturday evening and at 9:30am on Sunday morning. It also has weekday Masses at 9:15am on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Accordingly, St Theresa's Mass times do not conflict, they are at 6:45pm on Saturday evening and 11:00am on Sunday morning. Their weekday Masses are at 8:15am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The church featured episodes of Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks. There was a marriage ceremony and a funeral filmed there.

Exterior and grounds

See also

References

  1. ↑ British Listed Buildings retrieved 1 September 2013
  2. ↑ Archdiocese of Liverpool Pastoral Areas retrieved 1 September 2013
  3. 1 2 3 4 StBartsRainhill.co.uk retrieved 1 September 2013
  4. 1 2 Pastscape.co.uk retrieved 1 September 2013
  5. ↑ British History Online retrieved 1 September 2013
  6. ↑ 1840 Grand National
  7. ↑ Dyckhoff SJ, Christopher (1994). A Quiet Place: A History of Loyola Hall St. Helens, p.7

External links

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