St Michael in the Hamlet (with St Andrew)

St Michael in the Hamlet is a Grade I Listed building in south Liverpool, noted for the extensive use of cast iron in its construction and external decoration.

Liverpool, Merseyside

Opening times

Every Saturday between the beginning of March and the end of October from 10am to 4pm.
Heritage Open Days, and for special events which will be advertised on the church's website.

Address

St Michaels Church Road
Liverpool
Merseyside
L17 7BD

St Michael's church was consecrated in 1815 as a chapel of ease to St Mary Walton. It was designed by John Cragg, owner of the Mersey Iron Foundry in Liverpool and Thomas Rickman, a self taught architect. The church was built entirely at Cragg's own expense for the sum of £7,865 which equates to well over half a million pounds in today's money.

Along with the other three churches built around this time by Cragg, St Michael's was constructed on a cast iron frame, and its door and window frames and tracery were made of the same material, but only in St Michael's is the use of cast iron for external ornamentation so readily visible. The north and south elevations and the top of the tower are fringed by cast iron parapets and more than twenty cast iron pinnacles.

Equally important in the church's construction is the use of Welsh slate: it is thought that the building was originally clad with slate, and the nave roof is made of a double skin of large slate panels each measuring approximately 2x0.75 metres. The roof is of such a shallow pitch that its novel method of construction cannot be seen from ground level.

Internally, the stained glass windows are very impressive, particularly the large east window which was erected as a memorial to one of the parish's early incumbents, the Reverend William Hesketh; the topmost rose section of this feature is a representation of the Holy Trinity.

The clock in the tower is part of a memorial to those who fell in the Great War of 1914-18, the rest of which can be found in the narthex. This consists of two marble panels carrying the names of the fallen and flanking a window which depicting St Michael.

  • Spectacular stained glass

  • Social heritage stories

  • Enchanting atmosphere

  • Captivating architecture

  • Train station within 250m

  • On street parking at church

  • Level access to the main areas

  • Accessible toilets in church

  • Church of England

  • Repair Grant, £3,000, 2007

  • Our Repair Grants funded urgent repair work to help keep churches open.

  • Repair Grant, £3,500, 2007

  • Our Repair Grants funded urgent repair work to help keep churches open.

Contact information

Other nearby churches

St Michael in the Hamlet with St Andrew

Liverpool, Merseyside

St Michael-in-the-Hamlet is one of only two surviving cast iron churches by Cragg and Rickman and was built in 1815, the tracery, pinnacles, mouldings, and building frame are all of cast iron.

St Agnes & St Pancras

Toxteth Park, Merseyside

The stunning interior of Caen stone evokes the great Gothic cathedrals of Amiens and Reims; the church is also home to a superb collection of stained glass windows by Kempe and others. 

St Bridget & St Thomas

Wavertree, Merseyside

We would love to welcome you into our beautiful building, where we serve God and community with passion and pride.