English Martyrs

In that year a priest from New Brighton came to say Mass at a house which stood on the site of the present church. Four years later a Canon Stanton became the first resident priest of English Martyrs. In 1907 a church built of corrugated iron cladding on a timber frame was opened; it quickly became known as the ‘iron church’. In the following years efforts were made to raise money for a permanent church and in the 1930s the Shrewsbury Diocese commissioned plans for the new church. However, the international situation and the outbreak of the Second World War delayed these plans.

In 1950 the pre-war plans were not proceeded with and the Liverpool architect Francis Xavier Velarde was commissioned to produce new plans. The building has been well maintained and it remains a very important example of its type both in the exterior design and the internal furnishings. The exterior is recognisable as the archetypal Velarde style (he built 13 churches in the northwest and four in the Archdiocese of Westminster) and the interior is also typical of Velarde with Art Deco furnishings and a spectacular Zigzag Moderne ceiling.

The statuary is of some importance being the work of Herbert Tyson Smith, Phillip Lindsey Clark, Anthony Foster and David John. The cast mullions to some of the windows are significant examples as are the relief statues of English Martyrs which adorn the western and eastern elevations. The building itself is designed in the Romanesque Modern style with its rounded arches, plain interior and exposed brickwork. The separate, external tower with a copper clad lantern roof is typical Velarde.

English Martyrs church was designated by Historic England at Grade ll in 2003 and amended in 2013 to Grade ll*; of the 62 listed buildings in Wallasey there are no Grade l and only five Grade ll*. The Historic England Grade II* citation describes it thus '...with English Martyrs standing out as one of his (Velarde’s) finest post war churches'.