Church Of The Holy Cross

Church of the Holy Cross, Birkenhead

Parish church dating from the 12th century with enlargements in the 14th, 16th, and 20th centuries. The building is constructed from coursed and squared stonework with Westmorland and Welsh slate roofs, and copper covering the most recent work.

The church comprises a nave with west tower, two aisles, and a chancel. The nave is the earliest part of the building, with a south aisle and chancel added in the 14th century and rebuilt in the 16th century. The tower was refaced in the later 17th century, though it is largely 14th-century work. It has two stages, the first stage being very high. Massive stepped angle buttresses to the south-west and north-west were added in 1675 (dated). A square stair turret stands to the south-east. The bellchamber features a 3-light Decorated window with a clock below. An embattled parapet with some head corbels below crowns the tower.

The south porch was added in the 16th century and has a gabled roof. It contains a 4-centred archway in a squared architrave with paired shafts on high bases, and a niche for a statue above the doorway. The inner doorway is a 4-centred arch in an incised architrave, with a shallow piscina to the east of the doorway. Stained glass fragments survive in the east and west windows.

The south aisle is divided into bays by buttresses, with four windows. One window sits to the west of the porch. The windows are 16th-century work, some square-headed with transoms and segmentally arched lights, others featuring reticulated tracery. A 4-light window occupies the east wall of the aisle. The south wall is faced with well-coursed and squared stonework, though the original 14th-century aisle fabric remains visible in the east and west walls.

The long chancel has coursed and squared white stone facing. A doorway faces towards the east, and a 3-light square-headed Perpendicular window is present. Small single-light windows sit to the north and south of the east end. The chancel east wall was refaced in 1780 with well-coursed and squared white stonework, inscribed in the gable: "November ye 3 Work done by Samuel Hasel 1780". The entire chancel may have been refaced at this time. The 3-light Perpendicular window was possibly recut at this date.

A north aisle was added in 1964-65 by Hubert Worthington. It is constructed from coursed and squared red and white rubble, with a square chamfered west door and stepped segmentally-arched lights above. Four north windows echo those of the south aisle, featuring square heads with round-arched lights. A vestry was added in the north-east angle, possibly incorporating some earlier fabric.

Internally, the church displays a 4-bay 14th-century arcade with double-chamfered arches carried on octagonal shafts with simply moulded capitals. A stone dated 1584 is inset over one arch and may possibly date the 16th-century work on the church. Curved principal roof trusses with cusped wind braces span the nave. A small piscina sits towards the east. The 1964-65 north arcade features rectangular chamfered columns carrying square-headed arches. A doorway with simple chamfered jambs is re-set in the east wall. Semi-hexagonal responds to a double-chamfered chancel arch have rosettes in the capitals. The chancel roof displays curved principal roof trusses with curved struts over the collar and curved wind-braces grouped to form a series of circles.

A chancel screen dating from 1934 was designed by Bernard A. Miller, with carving designed and executed by Alan Durst. It comprises tall posts with low-relief elongated angel figures carrying a lintel with low-relief depictions of the Sacraments to the west and an altar flanked by stars and angels to the east.

A 15th-century octagonal font with traceried panels is carried on angel heads over a square chamfered base. A painted wood war memorial triptych with gilded lettering and a crucifix in a canopied niche stands on the north wall. Perpendicular bench ends are incorporated into later stalls in the chancel, featuring traceried panels and poppy heads, some worked as two-headed pelican and tumblers. A wheel-head from a cross is incorporated into the wall above the chancel north window.

The stained glass includes a series of Flemish vignettes in the chancel east window with a small crucifix possibly added by Kempe. Flemish roundels in the north window sit over a foliate ground matching that to the south, which has a representation of the Pentecost, possibly by Kempe. The larger chancel south window features figures of Christ with saints Helen and Oswald, symbolising the holy cross. Small vignettes and emblems appear in the east window of the south aisle, dated 1844.

A marble memorial on the south wall of the chancel commemorates Margaret Hughes, 1802, and is by W. Spence of Liverpool. Plain panelled oak pews are found throughout the church.