Built in 1928, this church was designed with some care and is an attractive, if fairly modest, Lombard Romanesque-style essay in brick. The use of a semi-circular apse, narrow brickwork and use of tile for decorative effect give it a pleasing appearance, typical of restrained but elegant work between the wars.

The church is on the northwest edge of Saltburn. The foundation stone was laid on 11 February 1928. Describing the occasion, The Tablet (18 February) wrote:

‘…the foundation stone of the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was laid last Saturday, the titular feast day, by the Coadjutor Bishop, Monsignor Shine. The new building, designed by Messrs. Kitchen & Archibald (sic), of Middlesbrough, in the Romanesque style, will accommodate a congregation of about 250 persons. It was at first intended to build only a portion; but this would have involved so much waste expenditure that in spite of a heavy remaining debt which the Bishop of Middlesbrough trusts to Catholic generosity to reduce, it was decided to go ahead with the complete structure’.

Description

The church, like the presbytery, is built of narrow (50cm deep) dark red bricks, laid in Flemish bond (hierarchically, simpler stretcher bond is used for the presbytery). It consists of an aisleless rectangular nave with south porch, a semi-circular apsed sanctuary with a vestry attached at the southeast and connected to the presbytery. On the northwest corner a rather discordant (because of the light colour of the brick) repository has been added: to the east of this has later been added a small, even more discordant (because of the cheap red brick) toilet. The style is a round-arched one with Lombardic-style arches below the eaves of the nave west gable. The exterior is enlivened by panels below the windows with tilework, a course of edge-on tiles laid soldier-wise, and tiled voussoirs over the windows. The windows are single, round-arched lights and have had uPVC window frames inserted in the nave. The roofs are slated.

The interior has white plastered walls and terminates beyond a round-headed arch in an apsed sanctuary with a hemispherical covering. The window embrasures lean inwards following the curve of the walls. White and light brown mottled marble lines the sanctuary walls to a height of approximately 1.5m. The roof of the nave is of the raised tie-beam type with a crown post and struts. There is a western organ gallery whose openings to the nave have been infilled with clear glass. The altar is constructed of light-coloured breccia and has a late twentieth-century brass-coloured, bas relief metal panel on the front depicting two stags drinking at a fountain. The benches are routine work and have round-topped ends. There are five single-light stained glass windows depicting saints and which were acquired from St Mary, Wilton Street in Hull in 1982.

Amended by AHP 15.01.2021

Heritage Details