A modest, economical structure originally intended as a hall.

The Catholic Mission at Netley is associated with the Military Hospital, which was served by Catholic chaplains from around 1863. Land for a church was bought in Station Road in 1947 for £575 and the present church was built as a church hall in 1949 but always used as a church. The cost was about £3,000.

Description

A modest low brick building, rectangular in plan and quite long. A lightweight structure with brick skin and profiled metal roof of low pitch. Side windows are square and of domestic appearance, in uPVC. Two on the garden side have metal panels below. The entrance front has pairs of windows either side of double doors. The crucifix over the entrance is the only real sign that this is a church. Inside the character of a church is of course more evident, though all is very simple. Internal porch flanked by service rooms. The main church space has exposed steel trusses over the single space of nave and sanctuary. Simple pews. The altar front and a side table are richly carved, probably Victorian, and have clearly been re-used from elsewhere (apparently from a chapel at Bursledon) and adapted. The font is placed behind the altar, a stone bowl on the floor. Beyond the sanctuary are sacristies and a Lady Chapel; the latter with a nineteenth century timber altar and reredos and painted wooden statues.

Heritage Details