A modern, functional steel-framed church with a pleasant, welcoming interior. A reredos panel by the Hardman firm comes from the previous (1947) church. 

In 1933 a site was purchased on Southfield Road for £833 but as the local population grew a bus service was provided to St Peter’s in Gloucester. Wartime restrictions led to this being halted in January 1941. From February 1943 Mass was said as an experiment at the New Inn, Stroud Road, and, from the following month, as the pub was not large enough, in the lounge of the Northfield Hotel, moving to its skittle alley as numbers increased. In 1946 a hut was purchased and adapted and extended in Southfield Road under architect E. Whitmarsh-Everiss. Dedicated to the English Martyrs (with a reredos by Hardman portraying a group of martyrs), it was first used on 13 July 1947.

In February 1965 work started on a semi-permanent building to replace the wooden hut. The first Mass was said here in January 1966, although the building was incomplete at the time. It was replaced by a hall-cum-church in 1980 (architect, according to Pevsner, Keith Savory), in which the first Mass being said on 29 June. In 1985 this was consecrated to become the present church of the English Martyrs. The presbytery dates from 1986 and is of materials matching the church. A parish hall was built in 2014.

The church is joined with the parish of Matson (qv), together known as the Robinswood Hill parishes.

Description

This is a steel-framed rectangular building faced with off-white concrete blockwork. It has a slated, hipped roof which carries a raised clerestory. The interior has low vertical walls (again with bare concrete blocks) above which is the boarded, raked underside of the roof. The sanctuary is placed in the middle of one of the long sides. Behind the tabernacle is a fine painting on board by Hardman of Birmingham depicting a representative group of English Martyrs, which came from the previous church and dates from 1947. The Stations of the Cross are from the former chapel at RAF Innsworth.

Heritage Details