St Andrew's Church, West Kirby

St Andrew’s Church stands on Meols Drive in West Kirby, a quiet town on the Wirral peninsula. Built in snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof, it takes a cruciform shape with a five-bay nave, north and south aisles, transepts and a chancel. A diagonal tower rises above the crossing, topped by a slate-hung spire and four pinnacles. The west end has a four-light window, while the east end features a five-light window flanked by niches with statues. The chancel walls are topped with embattled parapets. The church began as a chapel of ease to St Bridget’s in 1891 and became a separate parish in 1920. Construction started under Douglas and Fordham in 1889–91 and finished between 1907 and 1909 with Douglas and Minshull. It follows the Traditional Catholic tradition of the Church of England and receives oversight from the Bishop of Beverley. Geoffrey Webb designed the painted and gilded reredos in 1911, described as magnificent by the Buildings of England series. Inside, octagonal columns support the arcade and the font has a timber cover with crocketed pinnacles. The crossing holds choirstalls, and the south chapel is screened off. A piscina and sedilia sit on the south wall of the chancel. Arthur Barbosa created the organ case, pew fronts and candlesticks in 1928. Stained glass by Herbert Bryans appears in the south transept, north aisle and east window, with later windows by Septimus Waugh from the 1990s. A 1952 canopy marks the baptistry at the west end.