An economical post-Vatican II design, serving a new housing area. 

The church was built in 1972 from designs by Swainston, Wilson & Collie of Middlesbrough, to serve an area of new housing.

Description

The church is oriented south and directions given here are liturgical.

The church has a square, undivided space for the nave and sanctuary with a small Lady Chapel projecting from the northwest side. This space is covered by a flat, felted roof behind a low, plain parapet. Sacristy on the south side. The frame is of reinforced concrete with steel girders for the horizontal spans. Parts of the lower facing are brown brick and the upper parts are mostly rendered and painted white. There is a tower at the southwest corner with a monopitch roof: it is also rendered and painted white. The west façade has a small projecting porch and on the upper part of the wall three windows with zigzag and low gabled heads and grid-like infill. On the side elevations there are strips of clerestory windows which provide the main illumination inside: they are filled with large sheets of pale green, light blue and yellow glass. The east wall is blind.

The interior is brightly lit and has a flat roof. The focus at the east end is a massively bulky ‘canopy’ over the high altar formed on a plain, inverted truncated pyramid. Behind this is a shallow rectangular alcove for the tabernacle, illuminated by tall strips of coloured glass. Either side of the alcove are two wide strips of exposed raised bricks set soldier-wise and painted a pale pink. At the west end there is an entrance area with toilets which sits half in and half outside the west wall. The seating is formed of chunky benches with strongly horizontal lines.

Amended by AHP 15.01.2021

Heritage Details