On taking possession of my living, I found everything had to be created in the parish. My attention was first of all directed to the almost total want of schools...A further survey of my parish having convinced me of the extreme necessity of schools, I am determined to avail myself of the only spot suited for the purpose, the old Township poorhouse of which I have agreed to take a lease for 21 years....I have obtained an excellent schoolmaster and mistress.  

  My present schools are contiguous to my Church but far removed from the mass of my population. The great mass of my people reside around the works and many have to come more than a mile every day and some nearly two miles. Down where the majority reside, there is a population of full 2500 and, as much building is going on there, there can be no doubt that the population there will increase still more. 

Memorial to James Plews in the graveyard at St.Nicholas Church

James Plews was headmaster of the Sutton National Schools for thirty-four years. His worst moment was no doubt on October 14th, 1881 when a severe storm struck Sutton and St.Helens. It blew down the school belfry tower causing the death of one child with many others injured. The headmaster reported that he entered the scene of the roof fall, which took place in the infants school and:

...found the room filled with a cloud of dust and saw, through it, Miss Hannah Rosbotham, in the act of lifting out of the wreck a little girl completely covered with slates, timber, bricks and broken plaster.

Inside the original St.Annes catholic church in Monastery Lane, Sutton

However, the Sutton National Schools were not the first schools in Sutton. Sabbath Schools had begun in 1806 and figures from 1833 reveal that Sutton, with a population of 3,173, had six day schools which accommodated a total of 237 children. They were mainly private dame schools, which probably offered little more than a foundation in the basics. Although Green End House school run by Mary Loftus, which provided education for 19 girls, was said to have had the most accomplished of masters instructing their pupils in French, Italian and music.

When Henry Vallancey was seeking funds for new schools in 1856, he makes reference in his correspondence to a day school at St.Annes RC Church, which was then the only school that was located close to the main working Sutton populace. The original Gothic-style church was built in sandstone with tower and steeple and opened in October 1853.

Engraving entitled 'St.Anne's Retreat Sutton' of the church & monastery

There were only about forty Catholics in Sutton and with no chapel of their own, were forced to walk to St.Helens, Blackbrook or Rainhill in all kinds of weather to attend Mass. So in 1849, John Smith of Mount Pleasant in Sutton and a director of the St.Helens Canal & Railway Company, donated 12 acres of land for the building of a sandstone Gothic catholic church with tower and steeple and an adjacent monastery or retreat.

  ...a remarkable figure in the nineteenth-century revival of Roman Catholicism in England         (The Times 22/8/1949)

A picture postcard of St.Anne's monastery in Sutton, St.Helens c.1910

However, the beautiful church building became heavily damaged by mining subsidence and had to be demolished. The present church was opened by the Archbishop of Liverpool, George Beck, in November 1973 at a cost of £150,000 and is renowned for its shrine dedicated to Dominic Barberi, Father Ignatius Spencer (1799-1864) and Elizabeth Prout (1864-1920). Father Ignatius was born George Spencer and was related to both Winston Spencer Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales. He met the Blessed Dominic in Italy in 1830 and persuaded him to come to England.

Elizabeth Prout was foundress of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion and helped young children who worked in the mills in Manchester. It's quite conceivable that Sutton could have a shrine devoted to three Saints at some point in the future and Dominic Barberi was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 27th October 1963.

Close by to St.Anne's Monastery was a convent

The Sutton Oak Welsh Chapel in Lancots Lane was built by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1845 using cobbles made out of copper slag, donated by local firm Newton Keats & Co. In 1893 the Wesleyan's moved to new premises and the chapel was handed over to the Welsh community who used it as an nondenominational, nonconformist place of worship.

The Independent Methodist Church in Herbert Street, Sutton

The Independent Methodist Church in Herbert Street, close to St.Helens Junction station, was founded in 1891 on land donated by a Mrs. Thompson. It has been renowned for its training of many volunteer ministers over the years and for the Christian Endeavour movement which began when the chapel was first built.

1891 was the same year that building work began at All Saints C of E Church in nearby Ellamsbridge Road. It was built from red sandstone and like St. Nicholas was designed by the renowned Lancaster architects Sharpe, Paley and Austin. (see original drawing below)

A drawing of All Saints Church by architects Paley & Austin from 'The Building News' 10/7/1891

This was now the second C.of E. place of worship in Sutton parish and for many years a solitary vicar ministered services in both St.Nicholas and All Saints churches. However, by the turn of the new century, the influence and authority of vicars in their communities was starting to diminish. The days when the likes of Rev. Henry E.F. Vallancey could write stern letters to the rich and powerful demanding money for his Sutton National Schools project, as he did in 1856 to landowner Ellen Hughes, were becoming numbered.

St.Nicholas Church in New Street, Sutton c.1910 on a picture postcard

In 1901 Rev. F. S. C. Crane was appointed to the vicarage of Sutton. Just over two years later his parishioners held a protest meeting to complain about alleged "ritualistic practices" at his St.Nicholas church. On Sunday May 24th, 1903 when the vicar moved to the communion table to dedicate a cross and ornaments, nearly all of the congregation walked out of the New Street church in a cordinated protest.

The Times report of the Sutton Church vestry meeting - June 6th, 1903

On June 4th the vicar called a vestry meeting which was attended by an astonishing 500 Sutton parishioners. The Times reported that "the proceedings were marked at times with considerable feeling and liveliness". All but Crane and two parishioners voted for the cross and ornaments to be removed, a verdict which the Bishop of Liverpool felt should be honoured.

Although the vicar somewhat grudgingly complied with the instruction, relations with his flock were probably never the same and in 1910 he swapped benifices with Rev. William Edward Colegrove (1859 -1940) of Alvanley, Cheshire and passed away soon afterwards. Colegrove was yet another controversial vicar in Sutton parish. He was the Vicar of Sutton for 29 years but fell out with his own church council that he himself chaired and refused to attend their meetings or cooperate with council members.

The Times report of March 30th, 1936

Matters came to a head in 1936 when he introduced a weekly 11am service of Choral Eucharist at All Saints church that was alleged to contain "illegal practices". A protestant body known as 'Cromwell Ironsides' protested both outside and inside the church during services. The Times reported that the Bishop of Liverpool, Dr. Albert Augustus David (1867-1950), had expressed his sympathies for members of the congregation who'd been disturbed by "noisy brawlings or by whispered molestation" when passing to the Holy Table.

On Sunday, March 8th the band of 'Ironsides' sang a succession of hymns attempting to prevent Rev. Colegrove from completing his Eucharist. So Bishop David took the unprecedented step of ordering that the church be closed the following Sunday from 9am until 6pm. However, this cooling off period while the Bishop talked to both sides proved unsuccessful. On March 29th, when Dr. David himself took part in the controversial service, a band of fifty 'Ironsides' wearing regalia and carrying a banner, walked out of the Ellamsbridge Road church to hold their own service outside.

At times unpopular, Rev. W.E. Colegrove has an austere grave at St.Nicholas

During the Times' coverage of the protests, Dr. David praised Rev. Colegrove's sterling work in his parish, but he'd clearly had enough of his behaviour and tactfully called for the long-standing and ageing vicar to call it a day:

  Mr. Colegrove's personal work in Sutton has been remarkable during an incumbency of 26 years, but the fruits of this long service there will suffer unless they can soon pass into younger hands...I have been advising him in his own interests and in those of the parish to contemplate resignation. 

   The vicar's attitude seems to be one of not minding whose feet he treads on. He asks shopkeepers to help his campaign and then starts taking our customers away...where's it going to end?     Times 7th January, 1963