The original church of St Nicholas' erected in 1839.
Halewood lies approximately seven miles south east of Liverpool bordering on to the greenbelt. It was part of Lancashire until 1974 when the boundaries were altered and it became part of Merseyside in the newly formed Borough of Knowsley.
St Nicholas was built to be the focal point of worship for Halewood and nearby villages in 1839. The Earl of Derby donated the land and the church was built cheaply out of sandstone from a local quarry (the same quarry that most of the stone for Liverpool Anglican Cathedral was hewn) for the grand sum of £900. It was described as a "simple oblong building, without transepts or tower with a plain bell turret on the west gable".
Reverend Jabez Jones, first curate of St Nicholas 1839-1864
In those days the local population of around 900 were mainly farmers or their labourers. Then in 1864 when Rev.Thomas Chambers came to the Rectory of Halewood from a position at Childwall, he was so well favoured that some of the wealthier families followed him. As a result in 1882 a bell tower was donated complete with clock and in 1883 a peal of 8 bells were added at a total cost of £2300. Since then the church has been greatly altered with the addition of its greatest asset the stained glass windows designed and produced by the William Morris Company (Click Here for William Morris pages).
A church school was completed in 1847 adjacent to the church along with a schoolhouse. Over one hundred years later the population was rising due to a private development nearby and to the overspill from the City of Liverpool. The population rose incredibly from 3,791 in 1961 to 26,850 in 1971. In 1964 a new church school was completed to house extra classes, but it wasn't until 1980 that the whole school moved into the new buildings (the funds for the new school were raised entirely from the church congregation - no mean feat).
A church hall was badly needed as a central meeting place for the increasing community. A room at the rear of the church had been created but the now empty old school with its proximity to the church formed the ideal Church hall with two additional meeting rooms.
The 1970's and 80's were a period of great change for St Nicholas and Halewood after a century of peaceful existence. In 1972, our sister church St Mary's, which had been built as a shared Anglican/Methodist church, to meet the needs of the increasing population, was burnt down. This church was only 5 years old but the disaster served to unite the relatively new community. Two days after the fire the new building fund was launched and £4,000 raised within 6 months. The new church was re-dedicated in 1974.
Researched and written by Pam Beesley
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