Survey Data
Reg No
40402201
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church/chapel
Date
1975 - 1985
Coordinates
258048, 309788
Date Recorded
20/07/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding T-plan Modern style Roman Catholic church, built c.1980, incorporating Gothic Revival three-stage tower of earlier church of 1889. Pitched slate roof to church overhanging at eaves and gables, hipped slate lean-to roof to porches, metal rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls with smooth rendered plinth to front. Large format windows to nave with slate cladding to beam above and subdivided timber screen windows. Asymmetrical placed timber screen windows in transept gables with close-spaced mullions, also with slate cladding above opening. Timber entrance screens either side of tower with close spaced mullions and subdivisions to doors. Stained glass inlays in nave windows probably from earlier church. Interior with flat timber sheeted ceiling, plastered walls, carpeted floor and timber pews. Altar area raised above steps with classical style reredos. Tower having roof with slated spire having metal vane, ashlar parapet with pointed corner pinnacles all standing on profiled cornice. Corner pilasters to upper stage, carrying pinnacles and framing random squared stone wall with louvred lancet openings, string course below. First and second stages with dressed stone quoins, oculi, and date stone on faces of middle stage. Date plaque giving 1844 and 1899 dates to north side of second stage. Lancet window to north face of bottom stage with multiple-pane timber window having switch-line tracery. Pointed arch door opening to east with stone dressing and replacement timber sheeted door with overlight. Church located on gentle sloping site with steps from entrance podium either side of tower to road. Graveyard to side and rear. Low masonry boundary wall with square-profile roughcast rendered piers having triangular cappings.
Appraisal
A Modern style church retaining a striking and well composed tower which had been added in the later nineteenth century to the earlier church of 1846 on the site. The building plan is traditional but employs large scale fenestration to give a light filled spacious atmosphere and views to the surrounding graveyard, while the internal layout reflects the changes in church architecture advocated by the Second Vatican Council. Figurative stained glass windows of good quality retained from the earlier church are well integrated in the glazed wall of the nave. The structure successfully retains the scale and presence associated with earlier Catholic church types and is well arranged with respect to the historic tower. It is in a prominent roadside location and contributes to the architectural character of its setting.