A modest Victorian brick Gothic chapel, of some architectural interest for the vigorous brickwork of the exterior.

Sileby is an old village which expanded in the mid-nineteenth century with the coming of the Midland Railway line. A Mass centre was established in 1842, served by Fathers of Charity (Rosminians) from the newly-established Ratcliffe College. The present church was opened in 1877, and was the first of the Rosminian missions in the Soar valley. The first priest was Fr Lewthwaite, an Anglican convert.

Description

St Gregory’s is a simple Victorian building in the Gothic style comprising a nave with a tall pitched roof, a small southwest porch and a short sanctuary.  The walls are faced with red brick relieved with blue brick bands and the roof is covered with Welsh slate. The west gable wall has five simple pointed lights with a roundel window in the gable. The side walls are divided into five bays by stepped brick buttresses and each bay has a two light window with brick ‘Y’ tracery. At the head of the side walls is a brick corbel table.

The interior has painted brick walls and an open timber roof with scissor braces in the apex and principal rafters brought down onto plain wall-posts between the windows. A pointed arch in the east end wall opens into the small windowless sanctuary.

Heritage Details