Birkenhead Priory

[6][7][8] The upper floor of the chapter house, the Scriptorium, contains a chapel dedicated to the training ship HMS Conway.

St Mary's Tower was originally part of Birkenhead's first parish church, opened in 1821 in the grounds of the priory.

[11] Redevelopment of the area from 1925 resulted in a large amount of residential housing within the parish being cleared to make way for the construction of the Queensway Tunnel.

An expansion of the Number 5 dry dock at the adjacent Cammell Laird shipyard in the 1960s resulted in the church losing a significant portion of its graveyard.

Subsequent redevelopment of the approach roads to the Mersey Tunnel effectively cut off the church from most of what remained of its parish, further dwindling the congregation.