St Mary, Great Sankey - Church of England
Liverpool Rd,
Great Sankey
Lancashire
Click pictures to enlarge
Cemeteries
The church has/had a graveyard.There is a monument with just a few tomb style graves to the front of the church also there is a graveyard to the rear and one on St, Mary's Road :-
1833 the existing graveyard was nearly full and was extended by using land between the school and the chapel. This land also filled up quickly. The churchyard was extended by using land down St. Mary's Road. This land was given to the chapel for use as a burial ground when Greystone Common (or sometimes known as Heath) Penketh when an award for enclosure was made in 1868 and confirmed in 1869. The first burials took place in 1881. Most of this land was compulsory purchased in 1969 by the Education Authorities for use as a playing field for Penketh High-School. The Cemetery on St Marys Road Cemetery is still used for internment today and within the cemetery is a War memorial.
Church History
The Original Chapel was first built around 1640 and was a part of the Prescot (or Prescotte Parish as it was known pre 1730s) which at the time was in the Diocese of Chester It is documented that it was built on land given by the Ireland family of Bewsey and was built by public subscription. It was first used for Presbyterian worship and in 1646 when the Lancashire Presbyterian Classes were formed Peter Brook and William Barnes were named as lay elders. No mention was recorded of the minister.
The Second Chapel
Rebuilt in 1728 and placed under Episcopal government by the Atherton family of Bewsey.
There was further alterations and additions over the future years but the last revamp of the church was:-
William Domville along with a partner name of Short built the wooden bell tower in 1868.
About 1880 it became necessary to replace the old box pew seating. The vicar, Reverend E. S. Jackson (1879-1899) and wardens took the opportunity to enlarge the church by building an extension on to the east end of the church. This contained an organ chamber, chancel and vestry. The church was re-seated and re-roofed. A porch was also added. The old vicars vestry which had contained the stairs to the gallery was converted to a Baptistry. This work was completed by August 1883 and gives us the church we have today, with the exception of the choir vestry which was added in 1930.
The font was probably put in, in the latter part of 1915 as the faculty for the work to be carried out was dated 26th Jan. 1915. It replaced an older font which was taken to our daughter church in Penketh. The faculty puts it this way "with liberty to remove the said old font to a certain building in the new parish known as 'St. Marys Church School Penketh' the same being duly licensed for the performance of Divine service and the administration of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism". This building was knocked down about 1968 due to dry rot.
The cost of the new font was defrayed by the members of the Sankey and Penketh branch of the Girls Friendly Society and the Sankey Womens Guild. It was probably made by the firm of Williams and Clay of Warrington as they were responsible for the matching pulpit which has been disposed of.
Church Records
Whilst every effort has been made to record exact details of record office and library holdings you are recommended to check with them before visiting to ensure that they do hold the records and years you wish to examine. Similarly check with transcript publishers to ensure they cover the records and years you require before making a purchase.
Register Transcripts
The Lancashire Parish Register Society have published.- Volume M1 - Bap 1728-1837, Mar 1730-1752, Bur 1735-1838.
Maps
The church is located at OS grid reference SJ5687488449. You can see this on maps provided by:
- this church marked on a Google map. (Use this to report a corrected location)
- Google Streetview (Drag
pegman to centre of map to show picture)
- OldMaps
- StreetMap
- Open StreetMap
- Bing (was Multimap)
- Magic
- Vision of Britain
- English Jurisdictions in 1851
- Google maps showing nearby churches with satellite image option.
This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no connection with the churches etc. themselves. For current information you should contact them directly.
Help required
The information provided has been obtained from a number of sources and although every effort is made to avoid errors, just a few may be present. So if there are any please let us know. [Use the link at the bottom of this page].We do not currently have the following information, and if you can provide it then please do so:
- We think we have the exact location of the church.
If not please look at the
Google map
and drag the church icon to the correct location. A balloon will then pop up, on which you will find a link
to report the correct value.
If you are on a slow connection Google maps can be slow, so an alternative is to select the following map link, and use the instructions for passing on map locations. That should enable us to determine the exact location. Use the contact link at the end of this page to send us an email, and paste in the URL you have selected. Click here to show map.
If the exact location is correct, then please confirm that, and we can then remove this question.
- Have the Monumentals Inscriptions on the gravestones been transcribed and published, and by whom?
- Have you any details about the history of the church? Old directories frequently contain such information, and if you can transcribe such information and let us have it, we can add it to this page.
- Who holds the records of baptisms, marriages or burials? Have any transcripts of the registers been published?
If you have any further information about the church that you think would be useful to other researchers then do get in touch.