A small but well-detailed Gothic Revival design of the 1890s, originally built as an Anglican mission hall. The building makes a positive contribution to the local conservation area.

In 1962 plans by F. R. Bates, Son & Price for a new Catholic church in Kington were published in the Catholic Building Review. However, nothing came of this, and Catholics in the area had to make do with temporary venues such as the Castle Inn until 1980, when a former Church of England mission hall in Bridge Street was acquired for £12,500. This had been built in 1891 by a Mr and Mrs Wycherley as a memorial to two vicars, the Rev. Matthew Wood and the Rev. Edward Henry Harrison. It had closed in 1936 and was later leased to the Post Office (subsequently BT).

The church is served by the Belmont Benedictines, from Weobley (qv).

Description

The church is a Gothic Revival design, single cell in plan, built of local stone with banded red and pale sandstone ashlar dressings, under a slate roof. The entrance is on the return elevation at the liturgical southwest corner, via a shallow projecting gabled porch. The main elevation towards the street is dominated by a five-light window with lancets and roundels under a plain hoodmould. Above this in the gable a single bell hangs between a shallow gabled projection, and on the ridge above this is a floriated stone cross. After the porch, the return elevation has two groups of triple lancets of equal size, and a smaller doorway with pointed arch, now leading to the sacristy. The liturgical east wall has a three-light window, while the north wall adjoins the neighbouring property and is blind.

The interior is a single volume with an exposed timber waggon roof. The walls are plastered and painted, with exposed sandstone dressings around the openings. Towards the east end a timber screen separates the worship area from the sacristy. This incorporates a gothic reredos with blind tracery and brattishing and a central carved figure of the Virgin and Child over a brass tabernacle. The nave floor is of woodblock, with timber pews. The mainly clear glass windows incorporate coloured fleur de lys and other designs. A small portable font with iron frame and inset pewter bowl is a memorial to Fr Wilfrid Chadwich, parish priest 1970-1993, under whose aegis the church was transferred to Catholic use.

Heritage Details