St Michael's Church

St Michael’s Church stands in St Michael’s Hamlet, a quiet corner of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Borough. Built between 1813 and 1815, it was the work of John Cragg, owner of the Mersey Iron Foundry, who paid the full cost himself. The church was designed by Cragg and Thomas Rickman, using cast iron for walls, pinnacles and internal columns. It was consecrated in June 1815 by the Bishop of Chester, George Henry Law. The building is now a Grade I listed Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool. The church is notable for being one of the earliest major buildings to use industrial materials so extensively. After decades of wear, Colonel Thomas Wilson led a restoration in the late 1860s with architects W. and G. Audsley. In 1898 it became a parish in its own right, and a decade later the nave was widened to seat more worshippers. Improvements continued through the 20th century, including a new electronic organ in 1984 and a Jubilee Chapel added in 1957. Inside, the six-bay nave has cast-iron columns and a clerestory of slate roofs. The north aisle is wider than the south, and a west tower rises above the entrance. Stained glass by Shrigley and Hunt and H. Gustave Hiller fills the east window and porch. A marble tablet remembers the astronomer Jeremiah Horrox, born nearby. The west gallery now serves as a choir vestry with a glass screen overlooking the nave.