St Anne’s Church in Overbury Street, Edge Hill will be open to visitors between 12-4pm on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September as part of National Heritage Week (8-17 September).

During the open days, visitors can admire the architecture of the church as well as listen to the choir singing.

In 1840, the Benedictine Order of monks built a house for several ordained monks, who then set up a major church and school. It was the third Benedictine church to be opened in the city, and although the monks handed over the church to the Archdiocese of Liverpool at the end of the last century, it remains a good example of a monastic church.

As well as the main high altar, there is a Lady Chapel and a chapel dedicated to St Benedict, the founder of the order. Another side altar is dedicated to St Anne, patron of the church. The main chancel and the chapels include fine stained glass and finely wrought altars.

The church, which is a grade two listed building, was designed by the architect Charles Francis Hansom (whose brother, Joseph, designed the Hansom cab), and built between 1842 and 1846.

The building is mainly Gothic in style, taking its inspiration from the churches and abbeys of the twelfth century. However some of its internal mouldings are in a late Georgian style.

There are many head scarved into the stone corbels, and one of them is identifiable as the face ofthe Irishman Daniel O’Connell (known as ‘the Liberator’).

In 1883, work began on the expansion of the church. The old sanctuary was taken down and new transepts and an extended chancel were built. The architect was Peter Paul Pugin, son of Augustus, and the mouldings and details are in the Gothic style.

The main focus of the church is the high altar, which was originally set at the far eastern end of the building, separated by rails, steps and sheer distance from the congregation.

However, after the liturgical reforms which followed the Second Vatican Council, the physical layout was changed in 1969, and included a new wooden carved altar. Visitors will be able to visit these architectural features, either using a brochure or alternatively joining a guided tour of the building.

As with many of Liverpool’s churches, St Anne’s earliest congregation was formed largely of immigrants from Ireland and both the church’s history and its present circumstances may be seen as reflections of diversity.

It was built using red sandstone provided by the nearby development of the Liverpool to Manchester railway.

The unused presbytery of St Anne’s is used by Asylum Link Merseyside and asylum seekers and refugees are part of the church’s congregation.