St Michael's Church, Aigburth

St Michael's Church, Aigburth
St Michael-in-the-Hamlet Church, Aigburth
St Michael's Church, Aigburth
St Michael's Church, Aigburth Location in Merseyside
Coordinates: 53°22′36″N 2°57′00″W / 53.3766°N 2.9499°W / 53.3766; -2.9499
OS grid reference	SJ 369,870
Location	St Michael's Hamlet, Liverpool
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Open Evangelical
Website	St Michael in the Hamlet
History
Dedication	St Michael
Consecrated	21 June 1815
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	28 June 1952
Architect(s)	Thomas Rickman W. & G. Audsley
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	December 1813
Completed	1900
Construction cost	£7,865
Specifications
Materials	Brick with cast iron components Slate roof
Administration
Parish	St. Michael-in-the-Hamlet with St. Andrew, Toxteth Park
Deanery	Toxteth and Wavertree
Archdeaconry	Liverpool
Diocese	Liverpool
Province	York
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Revd David Parry
Laity
Reader(s)	John Pritchard, Alan Studley
Churchwarden(s)	Karen White, Brian Garner

St Michael's Church, also known as St Michael-in-the-Hamlet Church, is in St. Michael's Church Road, St Michael's Hamlet, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The church contains much cast iron in its structure, and its citation in the National Heritage List for England states it has "one of the earliest and most thorough uses of industrial materials in a major building". It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Liverpool, and the deanery of Toxteth and Wavertree. Its benefice is united with those of Christ Church, Toxteth Park, and St Andrew, Liverpool.

The church was built between 1813 and 1815 as a chapel of ease to St Mary's Church, Walton. The church was built by John Cragg, the owner of the Mersey Iron Foundry, Tithebarn Street, Liverpool. Cragg bought the land from the Earl of Sefton, and built the church at his own expense, its final cost being £7,865 (equivalent to £530,000 in 2015). Cragg was a keen churchman and was always looking for new ways to use cast iron. He had already starting building St George's Church, Everton, using cast iron in its structure. and he planned to use more of it in St Michael's. Here it was used in the construction of the walls and for the pinnacles. The cast iron in the walls formed a skeleton, the base of which was filled with slate, and the remainder with brick. The brick was stuccoed. Internally he used it for the columns, for the tracery of the ceiling, and for mouldings. Cragg worked with the architect Thomas Rickman on the design of both churches, although the relationship between the two was not always happy. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester (George Henry Law) on 21 June 1815.