Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Grade II listed building in the Sefton local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 March 1973. Church. 1 related planning application.

Church of St Mary the Virgin

WRENN ID
peeling-postern-pine
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Sefton
Constituency
Bootle MP: Peter Dowd (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
26 March 1973
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Mary the Virgin, Park Road, L22 3XE
OS grid reference
SJ 325 979
Coordinates
53.47414, -3.01819
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary the Virgin is a Gothic style church dating to 1877-86, designed by W.G. Habershon. The nave was extended in 1907. It is constructed of coursed, rock-faced red sandstone with yellow sandstone dressings, and has blue slate roofs with green slate bands. The church has a cruciform plan including an uncompleted crossing tower, with north and south aisles extended to link with an early 20th century narthex at the west end. The tall, three-bay nave features pilasters and segmental-pointed clerestory windows with three cusped lights. A tall, stepped three-light west window is set above the narthex. The aisles, now five bays, have windows of two 2-centred arched lights with set-in shafts and hoodmoulds and foliated stops. The narthex on the west side has a 2-centred arched, double-chamfered doorway framed by Perpendicular-style pilasters, and two similar entrances facing west. The transepts, almost as tall as the nave, have angle buttresses and large, stepped three-light windows in their gable walls with slender shafts and two orders of moulding. The chancel has a single narrow lancet window on the north side, and a large three-light east window similar to those of the transepts. The crossing tower, which rises only slightly above the nave and transepts, has small lancets near the corners and a stepped embattled parapet in lighter masonry. The interior has painted brick walls. The three-bay arcades have quatrefoil columns with shafts and 2-centred arches, stepped rather than chamfered. A similar arch opens to the narthex at the west end. The crossing arches are tall and double-chamfered, rising from clustered piers, and the pulpit is integrated with the north-eastern pier. The roof is a hammerbeam design with trusses rising from large, moulded and foliated corbels. The chancel houses an organ and a piscina in the north wall, and sedilia in the south wall.

Local climate

Church of St Mary the Virgin sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,190 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 91% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 16 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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