Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 05/06/2018

SJ 38 NE
7/34

AIGBURTH ROAD L17
Church of St. Anne

12.7.66

II*
Church, 1836-7 by Cunningham and Holme (architects), with chancel and transepts added 1853.

MATERIALS: stone with slate roof.

PLAN: the church is orientated with its liturgical east end to the west. The church has a four-bay nave with a tower at its east end flanked by a baptistery and a stair bay. There are stair bays set in the angles between the nave and transepts. The three-bay chancel is flanked by an organ loft to the south and vestry to the north. 

EXTERIOR: the building features a sill band, impost band, cornice and a plain parapet, the cornice to the eastern parts being corbelled. Nave windows are round-headed with shafts, being set between pilaster buttresses. The east entrance has a round head, two orders of columns, with beak head mouldings to the arch. Above the entrance is a set of blind arcading beneath a diapered gable that rises to the level of the main cornice band. Above this there is a clock face set within as blind rose window incorporating grotesque heads. The bell-stage of the tower above has paired two-light bell openings, finished with a corbelled cornice and a parapet with blind arcading. The ends of the transepts have three lower windows and three stepped windows to the gable, set above the cornice. The chancel window is of three lights and has a rose motif, the south side (the organ loft) has three round-headed windows. The vestry has two paired windows.

INTERIOR: this includes galleries to the east (liturgical west end) and the transepts, the gallery fronts featuring blind arcading. The nave roof has collars, the transepts have hammer beam roofs. The chancel arch is of two orders featuring zig zag ornament. The chancel window has shafts to its mullions

HISTORY: the church is thought to have been funded by four Liverpool merchants and was initially a chapel in the parish of Childwall. It is an early example of Romanesque Revival.

On Tuesday 16th December 1913 the church was targeted by suffragettes from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). This organisation was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903, and followed a policy of direct action in pursuit of its demand for votes for women. Action became increasingly militant from 1912, encompassing direct attacks on property including arson. The attack on St Anne’s was typical of the activities of WSPU arsonists, being carried out secretly overnight while the building was empty, as the Union’s policy was to attack property, but not people. The perpetrators were never formally identified, but the discovery of copies of the WSPU’s newspaper ‘The Suffragette’ and notes about the WSPU’s demands linked this to other arson attacks. The pulpit and choir stalls were destroyed, and the new organ seriously damaged. Insurance and donations covered a renovation scheme the following year.

This list entry was amended in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.

Listing NGR: SJ3818586228

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Anne, Aigburth at Wikipedia
• Church of St Anne, Aigburth official website
• Wikidata Q5117368

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)