The Church of St Anne Richmond, Liverpool in the County of -- Lancashire --

The church of St Anne’s, Richmond
1773 - 1969
Incorporating in 1937, the parish of St Stephen

Original location: - corner of Great Richmond Street & Cazneau Street Liverpool 3 Now Taken over by the B5713 St Anne Street. OS Grid Reference SJ 351914

	St Anne’s Church Richmond, courtesy of Churchcrawler

Below is an extract from the records held in the Liverpool Central Library

St. Anne's Richmond was opened for divine service on 25th October 1772. The building had been started earlier and was completed under the terms of 'An Act for completing a building intended for a new Church or Chapel at Richmond near Everton... 1772’.

The church was built at the expense of Thomas and Richard Dobb, cabinetmakers of Williamson Square, and Henry North, a fruit merchant of Dale Street, on land belonging to them. They had noted that there was a need for a church 'in some convenient part near to Everton due to the increasing population'. The church stood in what later became known as St. Anne Street.

A description contained in the 1834 ‘Picture of Liverpool or Stranger’s Guide’ noted that the church was “a neat plain building in the Gothic style, formed of brick and stone (later stuccoed). There are two rows of windows with ogee arches and the principal entrance is at the South-end, facing St Anne Street. The steeple consists of a square tower, adorned with pinnacles. The inside is neatly pewed, and the galleries are supported by light cast iron pillars. The altar is placed at the south end, and is decorated with a painted glass window, which is well executed: and a small organ occupies the centre of the gallery at the North end”. Unusually, and contrary to contemporary building practice for churches, the edifice was constructed along a North-South axis.

According to an article in 'Topographical News cuttings: St. Anne's Church, St. Anne Street' [Liverpool Record Office] for many years 'the original St. Anne's held the most aristocratic congregation in the town and the pews at one time were sold for sixty and seventy guineas to some of the most noted families of the period'. There were no free pews in the church, the pew rents and money given for burial plots in the churchyard having largely made up the incumbent's income.

In time the 'character of the locality deteriorated'. The rich moved away, the poor owned no pews and by the middle of the 19th century the church had fallen into neglect and disuse. The churchyard was closed for burials in the 1850’s while the Liverpool Construction Act was passed on 26 May 1865. Under the terms of this act, St. Anne's Street was to be extended into Cazneau Street. To facilitate this, the Act provided for the demolition of St. Anne's Church but its terms prevented the Corporation from pulling down St. Anne's before erecting a new church. The Corporation duly built the new church of St. Anne's at the corner of St. Anne Street and Great Richmond Street and the consecration of the building took place on 16th November 1871.

For the middle period of the 19th century, from 1849 to 1889, the incumbent of St. Anne's was Rev. William Wheeler. He was succeeded in 1886 by Reverend Charles Dudley Pater who restored the church to activity, built and lived in a vicarage next to the church, and built a parish room etc.

In 1937, the parish of St. Stephen (Byrom Street) was merged with the parish of St. Anne with the latter becoming the parish church of the united parish. The living of St. Anne's fell vacant in 1956. The question of the closure of the church was under discussion for some time and in 1970 the parish of St. Anne, Richmond with St. Stephen was united with the parish of Liverpool (Our Lady and St. Nicholas) the Parish Church (St. Nicholas) becoming the parish church of the united parish. St. Anne's Church was demolished in 1967.

Source