Dovedale Baptist Church, Liverpool

Dovedale Baptist Church, (formerly Wavertree Baptist Church, sometimes referred to as Mossley Hill Baptist Church) is in Dovedale Road, Mossley Hill, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It was an active Baptist church until 2018,[1] and the church building is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.[2]

Dovedale Baptist Church
Dovedale Baptist Church
Dovedale Baptist Church
Location in Merseyside
OS grid referenceSJ 390 880
LocationDovedale Road, Mossley Hill, Liverpool, Merseyside
CountryEngland
DenominationBaptist
ChurchmanshipEvangelical
WebsiteDovedale Baptist Church
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Heritage designationGrade II
Designated19 June 1985
Architect(s)George and R. P. Baines
Architectural typeChurch
StyleGothic Revival (Perpendicular)
Groundbreaking1905
Completed1906
Specifications
MaterialsFlint with brick and terracotta dressings, slate roof

History

The church was built in 1905–06,[3] and designed by George and R. P. Baines.[4] It became an independent church with its own membership roll in 1908. When Myrtle Street Baptist Church closed in 1939 (the site having been sold to make way for the building of the Liverpool Cancer Hospital) their congregation and minister (Revd K.C. Dykes) joined with the church at Wavertree. In September 2018 the church held its final service, and closed its doors as a Baptist church. The Baptist Union of Great Britain is now negotiating the sale of the building.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is faced with flint, an unusual building material in Liverpool, with dressings in red brick and terracotta.[3] The roof is in slate with a cresting of red tiles.[2] It has a T-shaped plan, consisting of a nave and transepts as wide as the nave, and a southwest tower.[3] The tracery in the windows is Perpendicular in style. The entrance front is gabled, and contains a central doorway with a four-centred arch flanked by diagonal buttresses and two-light windows. Above this is a seven-light window. At the top of the gable are pinnacles and a traceried panel with gargoyles. This section is flanked on the left by a porch with a pyramidal roof, and on the right by the tower. The tower contains an entrance, above which is a three-light square-headed window, and over this are three-light square-headed bell openings. The tower had to be reduced in height in 1989 following concerns over structural stability; the current one is therefore truncated. The transepts are also gabled, and contain two tiers of windows. Attached to the rear of the church is a hall with gables containing five-light windows.[2]

Interior

Inside the church is a crossing with a four-centred arch on each side carried on thin quatrefoil columns. There is a central pulpit, in front of which is an immersion font and semicircular benches. Behind the pulpit is an organ. In the windows is coloured glass with Art Nouveau features.[3] The three-manual pipe organ was made in 1906 by Hill, Norman and Beard.[5]

Present day

The church building is located on Dovedale Road, on the junction with Barndale Road on one side and Olivedale Road on the other. The main entrance to the church is on Dovedale Road with side entrances to the church hall on both Barndale Road and Olivedale Road. The church was in membership with the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Evangelical Alliance and Churches Together in Mossley Hill.[6] until it closed in 2018. Its minister from 1994 to 2011 was Wayne Clarke, who was also a BBC religious broadcaster.[7] On Sundays the church organised Morning Worship and a Sunday Club. During the week it arranged meetings for women, and for parents and toddlers. Brownies and Guides met in the church.[8]

See also

References
  1. Welcome, Dovedale Baptist Church, retrieved 20 September 2013
  2. Historic England, "Mossley Hill Baptist Church, Liverpool (1356346)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 20 September 2013
  3. Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 440, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
  4. Liverpool Summer Visit, The Chapels Society, archived from the original on 20 September 2013, retrieved 20 September 2013
  5. Lancashire (Merseyside), Liverpool--Mossley Hill, Dovedale Baptist Church, Dovedale Road (E00356), British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 20 September 2013
  6. Churches in our area, Churches Together in Mossley Hill, archived from the original on 14 July 2014, retrieved 4 July 2014
  7. About Wayne, Wayne Clarke, retrieved 20 September 2013
  8. Events, Dovedale Baptist Church, retrieved 20 September 2013

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