Wallasey St Hilary

A church has been on this site since before 902AD when the Vikings named the hamlet here Kirby in Walea - 'the village with the church on the island of the foreigners'. The church site overlooks the pre-Roman sea route to Parkgate, Chester and major parts of North West England. Today, it overlooks the motorway leading to the Irish ferries and the Mersey Tunnel access to Liverpool.

There are only eight churches in Britain named after the French Bishop of Poitiers, St Hilary, who fought against early heresies and contributed to the Council of Nicea in 325AD and the Nicene Creed. It is likely that these churches named after St Hilary were founded by another French Bishop, St Germanus, who came from near Poitiers and who was invited as a missionary by the 5th century English church.

The present church is at least the sixth one on the site, with an older tower (1530) standing alone in the churchyard which had been part of two earlier churches. The fifth church burnt down in 1857.

A competition for the design of the new church was won by architects J W & J Hay of Liverpool, and using stone donated by a local quarry, was completed in 1859 in a style felt to be in keeping with the new wealth and status of the rapidly expanding Liverpool and Merseyside port and economy. The church contains a lot of fine 19th and 20th century stained glass as well as an early 'Father Willis' organ designed by the then organist, W T Best, later to become the great organ virtuoso of Victorian England.

Website: http://mysite.freeserve.com/st.hilarywallasey

Opening Times
Wednesday, 12.30 - 3pm
And by arrangement

Telephone: 0151 638 4771
Email: paul@**robinson.fsnet.co.uk

Service Times

Sunday	8am	Holy Communion
	10.30am	Holy Communion
	6.30pm	Evening Service
Thursday	9.15am	Holy Communion
Saturday	9pm	Compline