A multi-purpose structure of the 1980s, in neo-vernacular style.

The first dedicated place for Catholic worship in Dawley in modern times was a World War I wooden hut, acquired from the RAF and erected on Paddock Mound in June 1964. It gave nineteen years of service before being considered so run-down as to be fit only for demolition. Between 1980 and 1983 the Anglicans and the Methodists permitted local Catholics to make use of St Leonards and the Dawley Christian Centre respectively. The present church was built in 1983 as a multi-purpose structure capable of seating 100. Telford Council planning website names the agent as Desmond Williams & Associates of Manchester.

Description

St Paul’s is a brick-built church of rectangular plan form, with a hipped and gableted roof covered with machine-made interlocking pantiles. The roof projects over brick buttresses to east and west and its eaves appear all the more generous at the west end where the walling is recessed. The body of the church is lit by a run of clerestory windows set beneath the eaves.

The church is entered at its southeast corner via a lobby with WCs and a small kitchen. The main interior has three pierced I-sectioned beams spanning the space, performing the role, respectively, of purlins and ridge beam. The walls are of bare brick and the plaster of the ceiling pitches plain painted. Upon the parquet floor are set out chairs which can be cleared and stacked with ease, enabling the space to be used for other purposes. Another great beam (this time concealed) provides the structural support for the fenestration and brickwork of the upper parts of the wall between the body of the church and the sanctuary. The latter space is darker, lit by two rooflights and light borrowed from the body of the church. Both altar and ambo are wooden and of simple design. The Stations of the Cross appear to be of late-nineteenth century date, and came from a Marist convent in Devon.

Amended by AHP 11.02.2021

Heritage Details