A dual-purpose building of 1900, of attractive and picturesque external composition and detailing, more school than chapel-like in character.

In 1887 Fr Charles Green was appointed to lead the mission at St George’s Maghull. Conscious of the needs of Catholics (many of them migrant workers from Glasgow) in the Melling area a couple of miles away, in 1891 he acquired a site close to the former Waddicar Cross, for £355. However, at this time construction of a new presbytery at Melling was the priority, and so it was not possible to build on the Melling site. Instead, a cottage in Waddicar Lane was rented from 1897 and repaired to do service as a Mass centre. Eventually, sufficient funds were eventually available to build a church, and in July 1900 Bishop Whiteside laid the foundation stone of the present building. Its partial dedication to St Kentigern, Bishop of Glasgow, reflects the strong Glaswegian make-up of the original congregation. The building appears to have been a dual-purpose structure, serving as both a  church and a school. St Kentigern’s became a separate parish in 1938.

Description

To outward appearance the building far more resembles a school than it  does a church. The main building is rectangular on plan, under a hipped slate roof with a decorative tile ridge. On the south side, a projecting room with timber framing in the gable and a lean-to porch with an open veranda with robust timber detailing. At the east end is a raised brick belfry housing one bell. Purple brick, with red brick ornamental detail (chequerboard pattern and banding). Large top-opening windows, of early-twentieth century school character.

The veranda leads into a small lobby/sacristy area and on into the main space, a single volume for the nave, with a short, square-ended chancel separated from the nave by a pointed archway. High-level windows to the south side of the nave, large windows to the north and west sides. There is a perimeter dado of glazed brick around the perimeter of the nave and a flat plaster ceiling with exposed timber tie beams.

Heritage Details