England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Liverpool St John Old Haymarket

The Parish

Liverpool is one of England's largest ports and cities, it is made up of numerous parishes with many created from St Nicholas & St Peter which largely covered the area of today's city centre, St John Old Haymarket was created in 1767 from a combination of these two parishes. Liverpool is sited on the banks of the River Mersey which separates it from the Wirral area of Cheshire. It is thus in the extreme southwest of the ancient county of Lancashire. Liverpool is a relatively modern phenomenon, there was little here prior to the Elizabethan era, indeed the area was still just part of the wider parish of Walton on the Hill until the late 17th century. Nowadays Liverpool is a vast conurbation spreading for many miles both north and south of its origins but also inland too spreading to engulf what were separate villages until recent times. Liverpool was, at the commencement of this transcript's period, a small port with 4 parishes. Like all urban parishes St John Haymarket covered a very small area, just a few city blocks but ones with a reputation for holding the poorest community of the city, a nest of crime, prostitution and simply poor and rotten slums, it is rumoured that the parish had the highest infant mortality rate not only in the city but amongst the highest in the land. By the time this transcript completes there are 17 parishes licensed for marriage and numerous villages engulfed with their own records. Today the area around St John Haymarket is a largely commercial area with relatively few overnight residents. Sadly the area received much attention from enemy bombers during World War II and many historical buildings were lost as a result.

The Church

St John Old Haymarket was consecrated in 1767 but took until 1784 until it was completed, the church stood in close proximity to St George's Hall in an area now known as St John's Gardens some 300 yards southeast of Lime Street Station. The church was pretty much an unloved specimen, early commentators describe it thus "For rather more than a century this unsightly structure has been allowed to disfigure the landscape, and it must be confessed that, as an example of ecclesiastical art the church of St. John has not a single redeeming feature, Its complete disappearance will be a distinct gain from every point of view."  Built in a Gothic style the churches stand out feature was it out-of-proportioned tower which dominated the views of St George's Hall and which discoloured markedly in the polluted air of the city. Finally in 1887 those who saw the need to remove this "eyesore" from the Liverpool landscape got their wish and the church was finally demolished.