Sacred Heart

This building group was designed by 'Pugin and Pugin', ie. Cuthbert and Peter Paul Pugin, and built in 1878. The church, of basilican plan with wide nave, narrow aisles and clerestory, is in the early decorated style and faced externally with sandstone. The presbytery, immediately adjacent, has a double gable facing the street, which balances the west end of the church. Internally the arcade columns are of polished Beshbrook granite with Woolton stone bases. There is a west gallery housing the organ and a largely complete reredos at the east end. The intended chancel was never built and the altar is set against an east wall across the end of the nave pierced by two lancet windows. The south wall, running along the side of the presbytery, contains three confessionals.

The church is of social interest. It was built in a densely populated area of the town known as Greenbank, an area predominated by immigrants who had left Ireland during the famine. It was said that they were too ashamed of their poverty to attend other churches in the town so the Diocese built a church for their own use.

The church was declared redundant by the Archdiocese of Liverpool and subsequently sold. We understand that a clause in the contract of the sale stipulates demolition of the church within a given timescale.