St Luke's Church is in St Luke's Church Road,

Formby Formby is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, three manors are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 under ...

, Sefton, Merseyside, England, and is an active Anglican parish church in the

diocese of Liverpool The diocese of Liverpool is a diocese of the Church of England in North West England. The diocese covers Merseyside north of the River Mersey, south-west Lancashire, western Greater Manchester, and part of northern Cheshire. Liverpool Cathedral ...

. The original chapel on the site was destroyed by a sandstorm in 1739. It was replaced by the present church in 1854, and this was extended in 1897. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Little is known of the early history of the church, but the presence of a 12th-century

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

in the church is evidence that it stands on an ancient site. This church was destroyed in a sandstorm in 1739. The idea for rebuilding a church on the site came in the 1840s from Rev Miles Formby, former vicar of St Thomas, Melling. He died in 1849, but the building of the church was continued by his older brother Dr Richard Formby, who owned and donated the land. The money for building the church was given by Miles' widow and his sister, Mary. The church was dedicated to

Saint Luke Luke the Evangelist was one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Prominent figu ...

, the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of doctors. It was designed by the

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

architect William Culshaw. At this time only the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and porch were built, and these were consecrated by the Rt Revd John Graham,

bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the ...

, on 14 December 1854. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

s were added in 1897, and paid for by Caroline, daughter of Dr Richard Formby.

Architecture

St Luke's is constructed in rock-faced stone with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roofs. It consists of a five-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

nave, north and south transepts, a chancel, a south porch, and a

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

on the west

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

. Along the sides of the nave the bays are separated by

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es and contain two-light windows containing

Geometrical Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. At the west end are diagonal buttresses, a three-light window with a

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin , lip), drip mould or dripstone is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a '' pediment''. This moulding can be ...

above, and a

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

over that. The transepts contain two-light windows, and at the corners of the chancel are angle buttresses. The east window has three lights, and surmounting the chancel is a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

pierced with quatrefoils. Inside the church is a simple

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

font decorated with rope moulding. In the porch is the gravestone of Richard Formby (died 1407), an armour bearer to Henry IV. This was brought from

York Minster York Minster, formally the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The minster is the seat of the archbishop of York, the second-highest of ...

to replace a facsimile gravestone given by Richard Formby. The stained glass in the west window includes medical inscriptions, and the rose window above contains depictions of local flowers. The original

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

was built in 1909 by the Orchestrelle Company. This was replaced in 1958 by a two- manual organ by

Henry Willis & Sons Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family served as principals of th ...

. In about 1970 it was moved from the south to the north transept and altered by Francis Kitts Ainscough, but has since been removed from the church. The present organ is a three-manual

electronic organ An electric organ, also known as electronic organ, is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the pump organ, harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally designed to imitate their sound, or orchestral sounds, it has si ...

made by Phoenix.

Appraisal

The church was designated as a Grade II

on 19 July 1966. Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing and is applied to buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest". The architectural historians Pollard and Pevsner in the ''

Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

'' series comment that the interior is "somewhat dreary".

Associated features

The oldest gravestone in the churchyard is dated 1666. To the south of the church is a cross base of unknown age that was moved here from Cross Green in 1879. It consists of three square steps with a socket for the stem of a cross, and is designated as a Grade II listed building. There had been a wooden cross in the socket, but by 1985 it had been removed. It was replaced by a new wooden cross as a

Millennium A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

project in 2000. Further to the south is an inscribed stone about 420 mm high of unknown age that has been traditionally associated with funeral rites. It has an irregular shape with one flat face inscribed with a cross on a stepped base surmounted by a circle. It is also listed at Grade II. The third object to be designated at Grade II are the old village

stocks Stocks are feet and hand restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law de ...

dating from the 18th century, which were moved from a site near Cross Green to the west side of the churchyard. The stocks consist of two stone

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

with slots for wooden boards, and between the piers is an iron bar. Also in the churchyard is the grave of

Percy French William Percy French (1 May 1854 – 24 January 1920) was an Irish songwriter, author, poet, entertainer and painter. Life French was born at Clooneyquinn House, near Tulsk, County Roscommon, the son of an Anglo-Irish landlord, Christopher F ...

(1854–1920), Irish songwriter and entertainer.

Present day

St Luke's is located to the west of the town of Formby, and is surrounded by pine trees. It is an active parish church in the

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

of Sefton North, the

archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

of Knowsley & Sefton, and the

. The church arranges services on Sundays and weekdays, baptisms, weddings and funerals, and organises a variety of groups.

References