Lancashire

Churches

A Georgian church of the 1730s with additions of 1908

Churchtown, (or North Meols as it is often called), is now joined on to the seaside resort of Southport. However, there is still a village feel in the area where St Cuthbert is located, and one can easily imagine the church being the centre of a small community.

The list of rectors of St Cuthbert's dates from Adam the Clerk of 1178, though nothing today is visible from those early days. Or is it? The oldest part of the present building is in fact a sloping medieval buttress at the south west corner of the nave. How did it come to be retained?

The solid west tower and spire date from 1730. Everything about it is unfussy: the spire is unadorned, the parapet is unbroken, the bell openings are simple large rounded arches. But as we move eastwards along the outside of the nave the picture becomes more confused. The south wall between the tower and the chancel dates from the 1730 building. So presumably the fenestration is original. But what about the tracery? The plain buttress with pedimented top is from 1908. In 1860 the nave was widened on the north side, swallowing up a transept. The new north wall stopped short of the east wall so that a small chancel projected. The gothic looking angle buttress on the south east corner of the nave dates from this restoration. At this time a choir vestry was added to the north side of the tower. The pulpit, continued to be in the centre of the south wall, and the original small west gallery of 1730 was enlarged and extended along the north wall.

In 1908 Isaac Taylor built the new chancel and placed an organ loft on its north side. He added a pedimented south porch (with a datestone) in the customary position at the west end of the nave. The west and north galleries were removed leaving a very narrow gallery/platform along the west wall. Taylor also re-roofed the building, and added wooden columns in the nave to give narrow aisles to the north and south. Taylor's chosen style is Renaissance-influenced. Inside is a semi-circular headed chancel arch on square pilasters, with further similar arches framing the chancel east, south and north walls. His east window is an inventive and pleasing work with tracery that manages to include a hint of Venetian window and a touch of the Moorish!

The church has a fascinating variety of fittings and furnishings. The wooden reredos, and similar woodwork on the north and south walls, communion rail and screen, are re-used pieces from St Peter's pro-Cathedral, Liverpool. The reredos and surrounds are by Richard Prescott and date from c.1704. They are an amazing confection of foliage, putti, swags, birds, etc, deeply undercut in the style of Gibbons. The benches have ends of c.1740 with double volutes of feathers - a type also found at Ormskirk.

There are two significant monuments in the church. One is to Roger Hesketh (d.1791) by Nollekens. It has an obelisk, globe, telescope, and books. The other is to Thomas Fleetwood (d.1717). This has putti, drapes and crest, and a Latin dedication describing his improving feat of draining the nearby lake of Martin Mere. Today this would be regarded as an act of environmental vandalism!

The stained glass of the church includes work by Shrigley & Hunt, but also by less commonly found firms including Barrowclough & Sanders' Greaves Studio, and T.F. Willford.

The church from the south-east

The west tower and spire are of 1730-9. Much of the eastern end is by Isaac Taylor of 1908.

Interior view from the west

Taylor was responsible for a major restoration - the chancel and wooden columns are his.

East Window (1908)

This inventive window pays homage to the original C18 east window now in the north aisle.

Reredos (c.1704)

The woodwork by Richard Prescott is re-used from St Peter, Liverpool (demolished 1922).

Stained glass by T.F. Willford (ded. 1956) - detail

The style of the glass by this Cheshire firm is very traditional for its date. Is it the Good Samaritan?

Memorial to Thomas Fleetwood

Fleetwood died in 1717. The text records his work in draining Martin Mere.

Photographs and text © Tony Boughen