A simple modern prefabricated timber structure of limited architectural interest.

For some years after the war Mass was said in various Catholic households and later in the Women’s Institute Hall. A Church Building Committee was set up in 1961 to raise funds for the purchase of a site and for the building of a new church, which was opened in December 1964. The church is dedicated to Our Lady and St Nectan; the latter was a Welsh hermit who settled in the Hartland area.

Description

The church is a simple structure with a shallow-pitched roof.  The rectangular body of the building rests on concrete blocks, with vertical timber cladding and felt roof coverings. Each of the long sides has six rectangular windows, with a strip clerestory at the ‘east’ end, lighting a small kitchen and toilet, and a projecting central porch in the centre of the ‘west’ front. The interior is simple, with plain plastered walls, painted timber roof trusses, a carpet-covered floor and modern furniture, apart from the wooden altar with its four Gothic colonettes, which was presumably imported from another church. The windows are all clear glazed.

Heritage Details