Holy Trinity Church, Parliament Street, Toxteth

The following extracts are from a 1884 speech by Henry Postance, describing the area of Liverpool in which he founded Holy Trinity Church, the full speech can be seen at the

Missing Ancestors Website.

The parish of Holy Trinity was in the District of St James which covered some 16000 people and, according to Rev. Postance, the 'lower part' of this district with some 5-7000 people, was not tended to. Rev Postance took on the oversight of this parish in 1856 and he describes how it was at that time:

consisting of 500 Protestant and 412 Roman Catholic families, lying as a kind of sediment along the edge of the Queen’s and Brunswick Docks.  There were, at this time, more than 300 families without Bibles, and 900 adult persons confessed that they attended no place of worship whatever;  490 of these admitted that they were unable to read, and between 400 and 500 children of school age were not attending any School.  Many of the people told me that they had not seen a Clergyman for years, except when he had been sent for to baptise a sick infant, and that the dying had frequently passed into eternity without hearing the warning or comforting voice of the Minister of Christ.

The area was so built up that it took 2 years to find a site for a church, during this time Rev. Postance preached outside (not always to receptive audiences) The church was built on Parliament St in 1858, and accompanying schools on Ashwell St. Both of these sites had drawbacks, the church was opposite the Royal Park Theatre which Rev Postance describes as "a frightful source of thievery and immorality" The church campaigned to have it closed down and succeeded in 1863. (p267 Annals of the Liverpool Stage pub.1908 (available online) says that the theatre was opened on 27/9/52 by Robert Edgar and was previously a guano warehouse, it reverted to being a warehouse after it closed down.)

Ashwell Street, meanwhile, posed a different problem as here were "22 houses entirely devoted to prostitution, and containing 75 women of ill-fame." the church worked with these women where possible, to send them back to their families or place them in penitentiaries and benevolent homes where they may "regain their character" some women "declined to listen to advice" and were sent to prison. Rev Postance declared that (apart from the occasional troublemaker) the area had remained free from prostitution. 

The court housing of the area was identified as a social problem, and Holy Trinity provided gas street-lighting in some, prompting the corporation to light the others. 

Henry Postance worked hard for the children of the area:  

• 1860 Holy Trinity opened a National School in Ashwell St for 400 children but there were many more children in need of assistance,
• 1868 Holy Trinity Ragged School in Beaufort St was founded and quickly had another 400 pupils, it acquired a playground in 1883 and was open until 1901 when the Harrington Board School opened up practically next door.
• 1870 an Industrial School was added at 73-79 Grafton St to house, clothe, feed, educate, and teach a trade to 250 children. These schools provided much needed education but also, wherever possible, provided children with food, clothes and security.
• In 1877 the Industrial school became boys only and the girls school moved to Everton Terrace.
•  In 1893 a large playground was added to the boys Industrial school.
• 1875 the church was enlarged with a wing for the accomodation of Industrial Children.
• In 1904 an Auxiliary Home was certified at 67 Grafton St for 14 children, closed in 1923.

Click here for a good explanation of Industrial Schools and Ragged Schools.

When the church was closed and demolished in 1940 the parish was amalgamated with St James and St Matthew to become St James with St Matthew and Holy Trinity.