This modest building is one of a number of dual purpose school-chapels built by C.G. Wray in the 1880s. It has been largely submerged by modern additions, but something of the character of the original building survives inside.

A mission was founded in Lutterworth in 1880 and the first priest also acted as chaplain to Lord Braye and said Sunday Mass at Stanford Hall. Lord Denbigh gave the present large site, upon which a school/chapel and presbytery were erected in 1881. This was one of a number of dual-purpose school-chapels built in the diocese by the architect C. G. Wray (who was related to Bishop Bagshawe), most of which do not survive. Both the mission and the school struggled but the mission was helped to survive by the financial support of Lord Denbigh and Lord Braye. There was at one time a plan to build a new church fronting directly onto the road. Instead the original chapel has been greatly enlarged in recent years and a small hall has been added. The presbytery appears to date from the interwar period.

Description

The original 1881 chapel was a single cell building with a pitched roof. It has now been engulfed by later additions on all sides and only the original slate-covered roof is visible externally. The (liturgical) east end of the old chapel abuts the presbytery, a two-storey red brick house. A new range of buildings has been erected the full length of the (liturgical) north side of the old building with a red brick external wall and a monopitch slate-covered roof. At each end of this range is a cross gable with a round window and the right hand gable belongs to a range of building enclosing the end of the old chapel. An addition has also been made along the length of the (liturgical) south wall.

Internally the original volume of the original building survives and is defined by the original open timber roof. A side aisle has been formed on the liturgical north side and the old side wall here replaced by iron columns. The nave has also been extended at the west end. The space is lit only by the small windows in the external wall of the new aisle.

Heritage Details