An imaginative design of 1980, displaying good massing and planning. The exterior, with a loggia below and tower motif above, is highly distinctive. The interior exhibits clever manipulation of light and space.

A chapel was opened in Frodsham in 1949. The parish came under the care of the Conventual Franciscans in 1964. A new church and parish centre opened in 1981, built from designs by the Liverpool architect Douglas C. Wall. The parish reverted to the diocese in 1985.

Description

The building stands on a sloping side and incorporates a church above and social and parish centre at lower level. It is clad in stone with dark cladding to the upper stages and eaves. At ground floor level there is an open loggia, with statues of saints and martyrs along the back wall. At upper level the main entrance to the church is marked by a distinctive funnel-like tower and attached chimney. At the rear the building is shaped in big, rounded, stepped forms with vertical slit windows.

Inside, an exposed cambered concrete beam divides the seating from the sanctuary and flanking chapels. The latter areas are top-lit, the sanctuary additionally by a side-light and the chapels with small blocks of bright coloured glass arranged vertically. The stepped south side gains light from vertical slit windows, and there is top-lighting towards the centre of the nave filtering through a slatted timber ceiling. On the north side a tiered gallery, perhaps for a choir, has seating facing south.

The combination of strong forms, and the mixture of traditional and modern motifs, with a characterful interior, makes the building distinctive.

Heritage Details