A chapel-of-ease from Ampleforth, built in the 1960s and occupying a prominent position on a raised site on the edge of the village. 

Until the church was built, local Catholics worshipped in the village hall and private houses (although Ampleforth Abbey is only a mile or so away). The present church was built in 1963 from designs by Ewan Blackledge of Blackledge & Broughton (CBRN, 1963).

Description

The church is built of local stone, roughly coursed. Slightly canted bluff main front with superimposed triple arched lights containing coloured glass designed and cut by Derek Clarke. Timber cross fixed to centre of the main façade. The church has a steeply pitched monopitch roof of steel construction, plywood boarded and externally felted. The scale drops down at the rear, from which point (on the west side) the building is entered. A small vestibule leads into a large worship space, faced internally in brick, with sacristy and ancillary functions at the back. Furnishings include a timber frieze of the Stations of the Cross across the back wall (1969), carved by John Bunting, a local resident and former art teacher at Ampleforth College, whose work can also be seen at Kirkbymoorside (qv).

Amended by AHP 15.01.2021

Heritage Details