Taking Stock

A fine early Gothic Revival church by a noted provincial architect fromBath. Good group of church and attached presbytery set in an attractive garden.

Early 20^th century church by the notable Catholic architect Leonard Stokes, completed by George Drysdale. The external appearance of the church is austere, but the interior is of considerable richness and quality, and includes an imported Roman Baroque Altar. 

A modest country church with some good furnishings but important above all for its historic interest as an early post-Emancipation church.

Comparatively large church given its isolated village position, built in 1964 from designs by Waldo Maitland. Similar to Maitland’s slightly later church at Helston (q.v.), the building is remarkable in neither design nor construction, but the large west window by the Harry Clarke studio is of some note.  

A small and functional design of the early 1960s. The architectural claims of the building are modest, but the church has symbolic value as witness to the revival of Catholic worship within the grounds of the former priory at Modbury.   

A very modest structure of the 1920s, extended in the 1930s and 1950s. The most notable external features are the toy-like tower and the granite memorial cross to Fr Joseph Dobbeleers, the Belgian priest who established the mission. The interior is notable for the murals and furnishings introduced by Fr Dobbeleers, and for some fine pews. 

Modest stone-built early 20^th century church built by A. J. C. Scoles on land given by the Molesworth family. The building has been much altered and added to over the years.   

A large town church built in 1915 by the prolific firm of Scoles and Raymond, in their favoured (and by then decidedly old-fashioned) 13^th century Gothic style. The church replaced, and possibly incorporates part of, a church built in 1870, from which time the adjoining presbytery may date. The chancel was never built, giving the liturgical east end a plain external and a truncated internal appearance. There was a major reordering in 1980.  

A scheme for an ambitious church with southwest tower was not realised, and the church as built is a modest flat-roofed adjunct to an attractive interwar presbytery, which makes a positive contribution to the local conservation area.

A small and entirely functional design of the 1970s, in an idyllic position in a large churchyard overlooking the town, close to Prideaux Place.  

A large and handsome inter-war church in the Basilican Romanesque style by Wilfrid Mangan, a well-known and prolific Catholic architect.  A re-ordering of the east end has not diminished the quality of the interior.

The westernmost Catholic church in the country, described soon after  its construction as ‘the best ecclesiastical fabric in the Diocese of Plymouth’. A large church built in the Perpendicular Gothic style in 1843, its west front is a lively composition of considerable sophistication. Inside, the most noteworthy features are the fine timber roof over the main space, and the granite and serpentine high altar designed by Joseph Hansom. The south aisle was added later and the north aisle remains unbuilt.  

A 1930s timber church, extended in the 1970s. While of no great architectural importance, it does contain some good stained glass by Dom Charles Norris.

Very late Arts and Crafts Gothic Revival church, built at the expense of a private benefactor on land given by the City Council. This was Giles Gilbert Scott’s last church, and the last Gothic Revival church to be built in the Diocese of Plymouth. It was opened in 1962, just as the Second Vatican Council was convening. The church interior is a design of particular quality and refinement, with furnishings of high quality, and is very little altered. With the slightly later church hall and presbytery, (by Scott’s son Richard) the church occupies a prominent island site in the Hoe Conservation Area and a significant place in the post-war redevelopment of Plymouth city centre. 

Church built in 1881 out of materials from the former Catholic Church at Teignmouth, dismantled to make way for Brunel’s Great Western Railway. Considerably altered and added to in the later 19^th and early 20^th century, and it is likely that all that remains of the 1881 church is the west front of the nave. The interior is not remarkable, but contains some features of interest; the primary importance of the building lies in its historical associations and in its contribution to the local townscape.  

A functional design of the 1950s by a local architect. The intended campanile would have given the church more of a local presence. 

 Church and former convent buildings, not of special architectural or historical interest.

Large late Gothic Revival church originally built for naval personnel and their families. Burnt out in a 1941 air raid and subsequently restored, the church is something of a local landmark.  

Early 20^th century church and presbytery, the former considerably enlarged in Classical style in the 1930s. The building occupies a prominent semi-island site and while the exterior is rather severe, the interior is of real quality. 

Attractive and functional modern church incorporating features from Joseph Hansom’s previous church in Devonport.