According to Patrick Neil (quoting from The Churches of Liverpool by David Lewis, The Bluecoat Press, ISBN 1-872568-76-9) land for a new Catholic Church in Grassendale was given by Peter Challoner, timber merchant, and a prominent local resident. The church architect is not known, but the building of the church was completed in 1838 in the "plain Gothic style" and included the current Presbytary.
"Challoner Hall", as we now know it, was added as "St Austin's School" in 1860 - attested by a stone in the building facade. St Austin's School, that forms such an important part of the parish, was originally literally "under the church" in the capable hands of Mrs Helen Bacon, who taught there until the Challoner brothers' "Ideal Schools Project" building was built in 1860. The current St Austin's School was built in 19?? on land that was part of Aigburth Nursery on the Ordnance Survey map of 1904, and way before that, in the 15th Century was part of approximately 40 acres (two bovates or oxgangs) of land given to the Cistercian Monks at Stanlawe Abbey on the Wirral. This land, which was used for farming grain and was rented to a "Granger" whose farm and residential buildings were called the "Grange", in our case "Stanlawe Grange". Part of the original Stanlawe Grange remains and is one of the oldest Liverpool buildings; it is tucked away next door to Aigburth Hall Nursery in Aigburth Hall Road. After the dissolution of the monestaries by Henry VIII the land passed through several hands, was split up, and sold on. Aigburth Hall was built on Grange land opposite Stanlawe Grange and belonged to the Challoner family in the 1830's.
The parish cemetary was the first catholic cemetary in Liverpool and regarded as a beautiful and tranquil spot. Compulsory purchases in 1933 and again in 1970 to improve the A531 (Aigburth road) took strips of lands from the cemetary. However, great care was taken to record and relocate graves and grave stones. This work is summarised on the Cemetary Plan.
In 2005 an anonymous gift of land that had been leased to the Council for use by their Amenity Service, was welcomed by the parish. It is likely that much of this land will be used to expand and improve school facilities, but this will depend on finance, planning, and other decisions.
The church was consecrated as St Austin's in 1838 as part of the Liverpool Archdiocese but has always had, as parish priest, a Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Abbey, in Yorkshire.
James Pinnington, one of the owners of Stanlawe Grange and now a resident of the cemetary, took some remarkable photographs of his home and the people, houses, and streets in the Aigburth and Garston area. These can be seen everywhere; for example the cover of the Godfrey Edition of the 1905 Garston Ordnance Survey map, mentioned earlier, and Mike Royden's Monastic Land in Liverpool website, where much of the history of Stanlawe Grange may be found. Pinnington's, original glass plates, and an excellent set of prints made from them, are in the Public Records Office in the William Brown Library. Among these are excellent photographs of St Austin's, and St Austin's School taken in about 1902.
Pictures of the church, both internal details as well as view of the outside, cemetary, and Challoner Hall can be seen by following the "Information/Parish Pictures" links from the Menu opposite.