A plain modern design, not of architectural or historical significance.

The present Catholic community in Castle Donington originated in the 1920s, when Mass was said in a room of the Moira Arms public house. In the mid-1930s a site was purchased in Mount Pleasant and small wooden hut erected to serve as a chapel but this was too small even for the regular congregation and in 1959 a former Church of England school building in Castle Hill was purchased, very close to the main shopping street. The intention was always to build a new church on the site but it was not until 1992 that the school buildings were demolished and a church, presbytery with substantial car park were erected on the site, from designs by Eberlin & Partners of Nottingham. The builders were Stone & Partners of Bristol. The church is a chapel-of-ease to Melbourne.

Description

The church is essentially a large aisleless hall with a cross-wing containing the entrance porch. The walls are faced with red brick laid in stretcher bond with red mortar and the steeply-pitched roof is covered in blue tiles. The fenestration is in the form of paired slit windows in hardwood. The interior is a single large hall space with a small sanctuary at one end with walls of bare-faced buff coloured brick and a small meeting room with catering and the necessary facilities at the other. The hall has a parquet floor, plain plastered walls and a canted ceiling covered in acoustic tiles. The windows are clear glazed and the furnishings appear to be contemporary with the church. One item of local interest is the painting of the Risen Lord, painted especially for the church by Lady Marie-Claire Kerr of Melbourne Hall (information from Canon A. P. Dolan).

Heritage Details