A late brick church by T. H. B. Scott, in his favoured Italian Romanesque style. The stately arched interior is considerably more impressive than the exterior. The church is designed in Scott’s familiar Italian Romanesque style.

The parish was erected in 1917. The parish hall at the rear of the site may be the original church building. The present church was built in 1938 and the presbytery, also by Scott, was added soon after. The interior was reordered in 1993 by Gerald Murphy.

Description

The church is designed in Scott’s familiar Italian Romanesque style.  The exterior walls are faced with brown brick, the roof is covered with Roman tiles.  The plan comprises an aisled nave with a short apsidal sanctuary.  The nave west front is defined by wide brick pilaster strips. Between them is a shallow Romanesque porch with a round arch carried on stone columns with carved stone cushion capitals. Small rectangular windows above flank a stone relief of Our Lady, with a round window in the gable.  The tall side bays have small modern windows below, a rose window above and plain brick parapets.  The aisle side walls are divided into bays by brick pilaster strips and have a row of simple round-headed windows high in the wall. There is a small apsidal brick sanctuary, with a modern single-storey link to the 1930s presbytery which stands immediately east of the church.

The interior walls are faced with yellow brick with a dado of purple brick. The westernmost bay has a timber-fronted gallery with a vestibule under. The nave has arcades of five bays of round arches on tall brick piers with simplified brick capitals. There is no clerestory and the arcades carry an open timber nave roof with tie beams and king-posts. The aisles have flat roofs and the aisle windows are clear-glazed with modern leading. The easternmost bays of the arcades open into a side chapel on the south side and a baptistery on the north.  The shallow apsidal sanctuary is lit only by two windows high in the side walls.

The church is simply furnished. The stone altar and pulpit with their carved reliefs and the stone drum font date from the 1990s reordering by Gerald Murphy.

Heritage Details