After the dismantling of the shrine of St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral in 1538, a box of bones of the seventh century saint was salvaged. This passed through a series of Catholic owners, ending up in the chapel at Aston Hall, Aston-by-Stone. They were rediscovered here in 1839 and taken to Oscott. In due course Pope Gregory XVI authenticated the relics and instructed that they should be enshrined in A.W.N. Pugin’s church, the future cathedral, which was then under construction in the gunmakers’ quarter of Birmingham.

In 1808-9 a chapel dedicated to St Augustine (or Austin) had been built by William Hollins on the sloping site in Shadwell Street. ‘Though it was valuably large and roomy it seems to have been gaunt and unattractive’ (Little, 52). In the 1830s a larger and more worthy replacement had been mooted, and plans were prepared by Thomas Rickman, who had an office in Birmingham. These came to nothing and it fell to Pugin, then at the height of his powers and influence, to prepare a scheme for Thomas Walsh, Vicar Apostolic. The church was built between 1839 and 1841, an early collaboration of Pugin with his builder George Myers. Brick was chosen for economy, allowing more resources to be deployed on the more important task of fitting out. The fittings were furnishings designed or procured by Pugin, with the support of the Sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury (who donated the stalls and a brass lectern, acquired abroad and the latter later sold by the cathedral) and John Hardman father and son (who contributed towards the cost of the rood screen, and high altar). Bishop Walsh contributed £14,000 towards the total cost of just under £20,000. A house was built (also from Pugin’s designs) opposite the church, described by its architect as of ‘solid, solemn and scholastic character’ and by his biographer as ‘Pugin’s first, and one of his most successful attempts, to create an urban Gothic idiom’ (Hill, 233).

St Chad’s was consecrated by Bishop Walsh amidst great ceremony and splendour on 21 June 1841. The brick design, of Baltic or Germanic character (which choices later embarrassed Pugin), took full advantage of the sloping site, with a crypt below the east end. This was originally intended as a school, but became a burial place, in Pugin’s words, ‘the first fully Catholic place of sepulture to be revived’. Here Bishop Walsh was laid to rest in 1849. Here also are buried Louisa, Pugin’s second wife (d.1844) and four generations of the Hardman family.

With the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy by Pope Pius IX in 1850, St Chad’s became the cathedral church of the new Diocese of Birmingham, and Dr William Ullathorne was enthroned as the first bishop on 27 October 1850. The Chapter of Canons was established in 1852, Mgr Henry Weedall being the first Provost. Pugin’s short sanctuary was insufficient for the building’s new status and functions, and in 1854 was extended under the crossing by E.W. Pugin, bringing forward A.W.N. Pugin’s rood screen. E.W. Pugin also oversaw the addition of the southwest spire in 1856.

The next significant addition was in 1933, when the northwest St Edward’s chapel was added, from designs by Sebastian Pugin Powell (A.W.N. Pugin’s grandson) as a memorial to Archbishop Ilsley.

In 1941, on the occasion of its centenary, St Chad’s was made a minor basilica by Pope Pius XII.

Sadly, in 1959, Pugin’s Bishop’s House was demolished to make way for the City Council’s inner ring road. A chimneypiece and two chairs from the house are displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.

From 1964 a major programme of repair, relighting and reheating was instigated by Archbishop Dwyer (architects Weightman & Bullen of Liverpool and York). More controversially, the sanctuary was rearranged to allow for more active participation by the congregation. ‘For this purpose the sanctuary was remodelled and extended to the chancel crossing. Much anxious consideration was given to retaining the rood screen designed by Pugin, in particular, to restoring this to the original position in the sanctuary […] Unfortunately this compromise inhibited the free circulation around the new high altar and sanctuary, thus the retention of the rood screen was found to be impossible’ (architect’s account in Catholic Building Review, 1968). Incongruously, Pugin’s tiled floors were replaced with polished marble. Other changes included the relocation of the organ from the sanctuary arch to the west end, leaving a small choir organ adjoining the sanctuary.

The demolition of the house and Archbishop Dwyer’s reordering no doubt prompted the characterisation of the cathedral and its setting as ‘mutilated’ in the revised list entry of 1982 (the cathedral had been first listed in 1952). The internal damage was ameliorated in reordering and redecoration carried out from 1992 for Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville by Duval Brownhill (now Brownhill Hayward Brown). ‘It is certainly the most colourful restoration of a Pugin cathedral since that of Nottingham by F. A. Walters in 1926-7’ (O’Donnell, 62). The corpus from the rood has been rehung (photo lower left, above), albeit without the attendant figures of Our Lady and St John. The screen itself is now in the Anglican church of Holy Trinity, Reading.

In 1995 Archbishop Couve de Murville arranged for fresh examination of the relics venerated as those of St Chad. The report by the Oxford Archaeology Unit concluded that five of the six bones were of mid-seventh century date. A Decree issued by the archbishop in 1997 required that the bones should be kept together and venerated collectively.

Description

The following is an expanded version of the list entry (below), taking account of more recent alterations, and remedying some omissions. The cathedral is oriented northwest-southeast, but this description assumes conventional orientation, as if the high altar was to the east.

The church was built in 1839-41 from designs by A.W.N. Pugin. It is built of brick laid in Flemish bond, with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs. The style is derived from north German churches of the thirteenth century e.g. St Elizabeth, Marburg. The plan consists of an aisled nave, western towers with spires, shallow transepts, short apsidal chancel flanked by Lady Chapel and sacristies, north baptistery with steps down to the crypt below and northwest chapel (added in 1933, architect Sebastian Pugin Powell). Pugin’s intended spire at the crossing was not built.

The west front is symmetrical, with two thin towers with equally thin broach spires, that to the southwest completed in 1856 (architect E.W. Pugin). The northwest tower has a ring of five bells originally cast by Mears of Whitechapel and augmented by three by Blews of Birmingham in 1877, all recast by Taylors of Loughborough in 1940. The central main entrance has a doorway divided by a stone pier and carved tympanum with the Virgin and Child and censing angels. Above this, a large six-light window with Geometrical tracery and in the gable a spherical triangle window with trefoils. In the towers, the height of the paired windows is accentuated by integral niches, with statues of English saints. To the northwest, the apsidal St Edward’s chapel of 1933 and beyond this to the east, the entrance to the crypt and the former baptistery. The transept has a tall six-light window. The east end takes advantage of the sloping site, ‘a sublimely successful … massing of slate roofs and gables rising over a massive crypt’ (O’Donnell), with a three-sided apse flanked by the Lady Chapel to the north (in English fourteenth century style) and sacristies to the south.

Entering the church, the high nave and aisles and absence of clerestory gives the impression of a hall church. The nave arcade is of five bays, with immensely tall slender clustered shafts; a sixth, taller and broader bay marks the crossing. The aisle and chancel windows are all of two lights. The steeply pitched roof has slender timbers and embraces both the nave and aisles and suggests a crossing by means of lateral hips. In the nave, the roof has a high queen-post truss with arched braces to an upper collar, supported by curved braces to wall posts which are the continuation of stone wall posts which rise from the capitals and link the roof and arcade. The aisles have purlin and rafter roofs, supported by struts from the nave arcade. The chancel roof has moulded rafters supported by curved brackets and a ridge purlin. A staircase from the north aisles leads down to the crypt, which is of Norman design, evoking the accretive nature of many a genuinely medieval church. This includes a chapel and the Hardman Chantry, the latter with painted decoration of 1877 (restored 1998).

Many of the original furnishings have been lost, but A.W.N. Pugin’s high altar of 1841 survives. Paid for by John Hardman Senior and Junior (who also paid for Pugin’s rood screen), this has riddel posts and an elaborately carved gable with cusped arch enclosing the relic chest of St Chad, with the crowning spire added in 1933 (by Gerald Hardman). Below this, the tabernacle is by J. H. Powell (1878). The oak choir stalls and Pugin’s oak archbishop’s throne incorporate late medieval carved woodwork, traditionally (and in the list entry) said to come from St Mary im Kapitol, Cologne but now thought to be more likely Netherlandish, with carved figures and linenfold panelling. The nineteenth century-style encaustic tile floors of the sanctuary are by H. and R. Johnson, 1992, replacing the 1960s marble. The stone forward altar, pierced with cusped openings, is of c.1992.

Pugin’s altar also survives in the Lady Chapel, 1841, with carvings of the Presentation in the Temple, Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, and a contemporary reredos carved with the Virgin and Child flanked by the Annunciation and Visitation. The chapel also retains Pugin’s screen and parclose screen, and a fifteenth century statue of the Virgin and Child given by Pugin. The fibreglass statue of St Joseph is by Michael Clarke, 1969.

In the north transept is Pugin’s elaborate canopied Bath stone monument to Bishop Walsh, made by Myers and a ledger brass to John Bernard Hardman, d.1903.

Pugin’s font is now in the north aisle, octagonal and carved with the symbols of the evangelists. In the south aisle is a war memorial of 1921 by Gerald Hardman, with a relief of the Deposition and a memorial tablet to Archbishop Williams, d.1946, by G. B. Cox. Along both aisles, the Stations of the Cross are by Albrecht Franz Lieven de Vriendt of Antwerp, 1875.

In the nave, the hexagonal oak pulpit is now placed against the northwest crossing pier, moved from the south side in 1968, when it lost its tester. Incorporating statuettes of Doctors of the Church, it was made by Pugin from one of circa 1520, obtained probably from St Gertrude’s Abbey, Leuven and given by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1841. The pews, of Japanese oak, date from 1940 and were designed by G.B. Cox.  On the south side, a nineteenth century wooden statue of St Chad, holding a model of Lichfield Cathedral. At the west end of the nave, the organ (built by J. W. Walker & Sons in 1993) has a dazzlingly painted Gothic case by David Graebe.

At the northwest corner, in St Edward’s chapel, an altar of 1933 by Gerald Hardman.

Stained glass by Pugin (notably in the chancel apse, made by William Warrington and in the former baptistery, made by William Wailes); the rest largely by the Hardman firm, ranging in date from 1848 to 1928.

Finally, monuments in the crypt include that to Archbishop Ullathorne, by Peter Paul Pugin, 1890, with a reclining effigy in episcopal vestments under a four-centred canopy.

List description

II*

Roman Catholic. 1839-41, by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin but very much mutilated both in itself and in its setting. Red brick; slate roof. In a C14 German style with a short chancel with flanking small north Lady Chapel and south vestries, an aisled nave apparently with shallow transepts, a north baptistery with stairs down to the crypt below and a north-west chapel of 1933 and 2 thin west towers with needle spires. Arcade of 5 bays with immensely tall slender clustered shafts; a sixth, taller and broader bay marks the ‘crossing’, Modern west gallery with organ. Their steeply pitched timber roof embracing nave and aisles and suggesting a crossing by means of lateral hips. Tall 2-light windows to chancel and nave. The furnishings now mostly gone. The concave-sided hexagonal pulpit with statuettes of Doctors of the Church is a piece made by Pugin from one of circa 1520 obtained probably from St Gertrude’s Abbey, Louvain. The Archbishop’s Throne and the stalls incorporate late C15 carved woodwork from St Mary in Capitol, Cologne. Still surviving some of Pugin’s stained glass made circa 1845 by W Warrington and there is other glass by Hardman and Co of circa 1865. Also by Hardman and Co, brass to the Rev John More +1856; he stands but has a pillow behind his head. In the crypt only the arch of the easternmost chapel now has any of Pugin’s painted patterning. In the crypt, too, monument to Bishop William Ullathorne OSB+1889. He lies in episcopal vestments with, on the wall behind him, a large painted tablet showing him being presented to the Virgin and Child by St Bernard and an angel.

Listing NGR: SP0696687522

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A church was built at some point between 1836 and 1841 in the garden of Edward Pyatt, a carpenter. It was a monthly Mass centre served from Woodlane, Yoxall. By 1889 it was in very poor condition and in 1891 it closed and was sold.  Efforts to re-establish a church came to nothing until money was given towards the upkeep of a priest. A mission was subsequently opened in a room in the Goat’s Head Inn in 1915. Later in the same year the old church and five neighbouring cottages were bought for renovation as a church, undertaken by Mr J. Chell of Uttoxeter, a builder. One of the cottages was demolished to give better access to the site, and two others were converted to serve as a presbytery, since demolished and replaced. The church was opened in August of that year, when it was dedicated to St Alban.

The building was altered during the interwar years with the addition of a sacristy and confessional and in 1925 the sanctuary was enlarged, a new sacristy built, and a marble altar installed. The light fittings may also date from this time. From that time it was known as Sacred Heart. In 1936 the porch was added. The east window was installed in 1955, and Stations of the Cross were given in memory of Cyril Bamford. In 1987 the building was renovated and the altar brought forward in accordance with the reformed liturgy. At this or an earlier date the marble altar was replaced.

Description

All orientations given are liturgical. The building is a rectangle of brick, rendered on the south side, with a west porch, south chapel (now used for additional seating) and adjacent shallow confessional, and southeast sacristy. The east end is pebbledashed, and the roof tiled. The north side is of exposed brick, with lancets with Y-tracery, each one surmounted by a brick cross in relief. The east window is round-arched, and those on the south side match those on the north side. The porch leads to an inner doorway with a decorative overlight. The interior retains the shallow vaulted plaster ceiling with embattled cornice shown in early photographs), and is of simple charm. The altar is of carved wood with traceried panels and a central Crucifixion. It is probably of mid-twentieth century date. The stained glass east window showing Christ is by Hardman (1955). The benches are of pitch pine, and the light fittings of distinctive interwar character.

The post Abbots Bromley – Sacred Heart appeared first on Taking Stock.

A Benedictine priory was founded about half a mile north of Alcester in 1140. The site was encompassed by the River Arrow to the north and east and by a connecting moat on the south and west, so became known as Our Lady of the Isle.

The modern Catholic mission at Alcester was established from Coughton (qv). The site for a new church was acquired from Lord Hertford of Ragley Hall in 1887, and according to an 1887 account in The Tablet lay on part of the former grounds of the medieval priory. The church was built for the Rev. J. B. Mackinlay OSB from designs by Canon A. J. C. Scoles; the builder was J. Stanley of Broom. The foundation stone was laid in July 1888 and the church was opened by Bishop Ilsley on 19 March 1889; it seated 180 and cost about £2,000. The building stone was in part brought from the Throckmorton estate at Coughton. A presbytery was built at the same time, linked to the church. A school was built in 1902, which became the parish hall when a new school was built in 1956. The original high altar was by Wall of Cheltenham (who later collaborated with Scoles at St Francis, Handsworth, qv), with a tabernacle door by Hardman & Powell. In 1905 this was augmented by a reredos designed by Hardman & Co., and with carved figures by Roddis and Nourse of Birmingham; it was based on E. W. Pugin’s reredos for Stanbrook Abbey. Both altar and reredos at Alcester were removed in post-Vatican II reordering.

Description

A modest building with a rectangular aisleless nave, northwest porch and a short sanctuary. Nave and sanctuary are under a continuous pitched roof, with a ridge spirelet at the junction.  The walls are faced with limestone from the Throckmorton estate at Coughton, with dressings of Bath stone.  The roof is covered in red clay tiles.  The west front facing Priory Road has two two-light windows with plate tracery set high in the wall with a niche in the gable containing a statue of St Joseph, over a shelf resting on a colonette with a floriated capital. East of the simple porch the nave walls have four windows, each of two lights with cusped quatrefoil tracery. The sanctuary abuts the presbytery and has a small rose window in the east wall.

The interior has not been inspected, and the following account is based on photographs on the parish website  and other sources. The internal walls are plastered and painted; a previous scheme of polychrome decoration on the walls and ceiling  is no longer in evidence. The nave has a timber west gallery and a canted panelled roof. The pointed stone chancel arch is chamfered and rests on pilaster responds. On the north side of the arch is a stone figure of St Joseph under a canopied niche. There is a corresponding arch in the east wall, framing the rose window. Fittings include stained glass by Hardman and, at the west end, Arthur Wybo of Brussels. The high altar and reredos was removed after the Second Vatican Council, as were the communion rails. Also removed were the rood figures shown over the sacristy door and the figure of the Virgin and Child under a rich Gothic canopy.

The post Alcester – Our Lady and St Joseph appeared first on Taking Stock.

The first Mass Centre in the area was established in 1890 at Shelfield in a club room over the Four Crosses Inn, where the first Mass was said on 15 February 1891 by the Rev. James Dey. Shelfield became the centre of Catholic worship, with a priest’s house and school-cum-chapel dedicated to St Peter and St Paul until 1924 when the district was entrusted to the Franciscan Friars Minor (they finally left the parish in June 1980). A church opened at Shelfield on 4 October 1932.

In July 1939 permission was given to open a Mass Centre in the Avion Cinema, Aldridge, where Mass was said from 8 October. In 1941 the friars moved to a large Edwardian house set in four acres of land and the largest ground floor room served as a chapel (Mass also continued at the cinema). In 1949 a new building designed by Lavender, Son & Close of Walsall was opened to serve as a church and hall (it survives as the hall).

In 1952 it became clear that Aldridge was scheduled to receive overspill population and industry and this led to a bigger church being approved in March 1959, with work starting on 12 January 1961 (foundation stone 13 July). Designed by Eric Farmer of Birmingham, it was built by A. J. Downes & Sons of Aldridge. It seated 350 and cost £54,000. The church was blessed on 27 June 1964.

Description

The church is built of buff brick under handmade pantiles, and principally consists of a narthex (with choir gallery over), nave, passage aisles, shallow transepts, sanctuary and a 70ft campanile (with copper capping), the ground floor of which originally served as a baptistery. Hollington stone is used for the dressings, commonwealth hardwoods for the main doors and other woodwork. There is no east window but on one side of the high altar the wall is entirely taken up with a reinforced concrete window frame, the central mullion and transom forming a huge cross. At the west end is a circular window with a six-pointed star.

The interior is spacious and light, thanks largely to tall clerestory windows with distinctive curved elements at their tops and bases. The main ceiling is three-sided with what appear to be reinforced concrete trusses. The aisles are separated from the nave by shallow segmental arches. A broad round arch separates the nave and sanctuary.

The reredos forms a striking feature, consisting of figures of Our Lady surrounded by angels and carved in ‘ciment foundu’ and gilded set against a ground of Westmorland slate; this is the work of R. F. Kings ARBS, a Birmingham artist who also designed the Stations of the Cross, which are incised and finished in white on black slate panels. The organ, by Hill, Norman & Beard (1930), was originally in the Plaza Cinema, Swansea; it was removed in 1962 before that building was demolished and was rebuilt here by George Longstaffe of George Organs Ltd of Dudley. The church was reordered in 1969, when a new limestone high altar and font were installed. At the time of writing, it is intended to create a shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in the former baptistery under the tower. The organ is being overhauled.

The post Aldridge – St Mary of the Angels appeared first on Taking Stock.

This church was designed in 1839-40 as the chapel of the Hospital of St John the Baptist, founded by John Talbot, the Sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury. It represents an early collaboration between him and the great pioneer and polemicist of the Gothic Revival, A. W. Pugin. This would lead on, most magnificently, to the building of St Giles’s church in Cheadle (1841-46, qv). The scheme for the hospital was meant as a residence for ‘decaying priests’ (said Pugin) and also a school. Originally what is now the nave was built as a schoolroom which could be closed off from the chapel beyond by large wooden doors; the hinge brackets still survive. The consecration took place on 13 July 1842 but it is clear that Pugin failed to persuade the earl to create a permanent, full hospital foundation. After the death of the last Catholic earl in 1856, the property continued as a boys’ school. In 1875 a boarding school for young ladies was opened here. The chapel was consecrated in 1932 and then became the parish church of Alton. The complex now serves as a Diocesan Youth Retreat Centre, using the church as required (the chapel in the castle has been stripped of its furnishings and is no longer used for Mass).

Outwardly the church might seem unremarkable if judged against most medieval churches and, indeed, later Victorian examples. It is, however, an embodiment of Pugin’s aims, which would be crucial in transforming the face of nineteenth century church architecture. He saw the Alton Hospital project as a return to an idealised medieval world of care and humanity under the aegis of the Catholic Church. The redeployment of medieval architecture, faithful to the original, was part of this process and predated similar work by Anglicans by a couple of years. Unusually for Pugin the style was Perpendicular, a choice he would soon repudiate as being inappropriate for modern Christian architecture.

Description

The building is fully described in the list entry (below) and repetition is unnecessary. However, some updating is necessary. The description speaks of the interior being ‘sumptuously decorated including much painted decoration’, but sadly this is no longer the case. The overpainting of the stencil work (and removal of Pugin’s rood screen) is a post-Vatican II intervention. Associated with this, Pugin’s marble high altar has been brought forward. The frontal depicts Our Lady of Alton flanked by St John the Baptist and St Alban, with heraldic angels between them; it was executed by Pugin’s regular carver, Thomas Roddis of Sutton Coldfield. The west window stained glass is by Paul Woodroffe. The encaustic floor tiles by Herbert Minton were removed in the 1960s and the present ones date from 2000 (those in the north chapel, however, are original).

List descriptions

Church

GV II*

Roman Catholic Church circa 1840 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ashlar with edged herringbone tooling; plain tile roof with crested ridge tiles. Perpendicular style; 4-bay nave, 3-bay chancel, north-east oratory, south-east chapel, buttresses at each bay division, diagonal buttresses to each corner. Nave: pointed west doorway with moulded surround and hood mould terminating in foliated stops; 4-centred west window above with wave moulded surround, 2 lights to each side of a central blind arch with nodding ogee over a statue of a bishop, hood mould terminating in heads, a king and a bishop; octagonal bellcote with scaled pointed stone roof surmounted by a cross; square-headed north and south windows of 3 cinquefoil headed lights with sunken spandrels. Chancel: pointed east window of 3 cinquefoil headed lights and Perpendicular tracery, hood mould terminating in angels bearing shields; pointed windows of 2 cinquefoil headed lights with short supermullions above and deeply hollowed surrounds. North-east oratory: North window has trefoil-headed lights; lean-to roof with stone tiles.

Interior: sumptuously decorated including much painted decoration. High pointed chancel arch with moulded surround; nave roof has 2 pairs of purlins, a ridge piece and collar with curved struts extending to the principals, 3 tiers of paired curved wind braces; chancel roof has arch braced collars, the braces are moulded and spring from octagonal posts with capitals which stand on corbels carved as angels bearing shields, one pair of purlins and ridge piece, 2 tiers of paired curved windbraces, wall plate and purlins are brattished; oratory to north of chancel entered by a pointed doorway to the west with nook shafts, 4-centred arch to the east; chapel to the south of chancel entered by a 4-centred doorway with panelled spandrels; 4-centred arch to the east matching that on the north side.

Fittings: octagonal stone font; pulpit in south-east corner of nave, quarter octagon on corbels; 4 brass chandeliers in nave; benches with elaborate poppy heads and backs decorated with openwork tracery; elaborately carved crucifix suspended over the sanctuary; marble altar of 5 bays, with cusped heads, the central and outer ones slim, the other 2 wide, the central niche contains a figure of the Virgin, the outer niches figures of 2 of the Apostles, the others contain figures of angels; 9-bay alabaster reredos, trefoiled ogee arch niches containing figures, except the central one in front of which the cross stands; niches to each side of the east window, each containing a figure, cusped arches with nodding ogee over; piscina to right of altar with trefoil ogee arch. Monuments: brasses to the sixteenth and seventeenth Earls of Shrewsbury died 1852 and 1856, one to each side of the altar. Stained glass good throughout especially the east window by Thomas Willement depicting the Madonna and Child and John the Baptist. Pugin’s screen has been removed to the Birmingham Museum.

The R.C. Church of St. John the Baptist was built as the chapel to the Hospital of St. John (q.v.) and is attached to its north-western angle; it forms part of an important group of buildings by Pugin built during the 1840s for the sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury. B.O.E. p. 60.

Listing NGR: SK0736142466

Cross

GV II

Churchyard cross. Circa 1840. Ashlar. Square plan base. 3 steps to a pedestal with quatrefoil panels containing the symbols of the Evangelists; shaft with chamfered corners and a shield to each face: elaborate head with canopied panels surmounted by a foliated cross.

Listing NGR: SK0734342451

Wall and attached outbuilding enclosing north and west sides of churchyard

GV II

Wall and outbuilding. Circa 1840. Ashlar with herringbone tooling. Approximately 150 yard length of coped wall with small gabled out- building aligned north-south immediately north of the chancel and approached from the west by a flight of stone steps; the wall is terminated at the east end by a rectangular shaped pier. Included for group value.

Listing NGR: SK0738742483

The Priest’s House and attached garden walls and gate piers

GV II

Former schoolmaster’s house, walls and gate piers. C17 extended and remodelled by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin circa 1843. Ashlar with herringbone tooling, some edged; plain tile roof with crested ridge tiles and coped verges; ashlar external end stack and lateral external stack. Aligned north- west/south-east facing south-west; the extension is in a Vernacular Revival style to match the original house. C17 house to the left. C19 extension to the right with a higher ridge. C17 house: 2 storeys, 2 bays, chamfer mullioned windows, those to the ground floor have a continuous hood mould; central gabled porch with stone slate roof and blocked doorway with cambered arch. C19 extension: 2 storeys, irregular facade, windows to ground and first floors left have three 4-centred arch lights beneath a square head, sunken spandrels and returned hood moulds, similar single-light window to ground floor right; central gabled porch with stone slate roof, 4-centred doorway with panelled spandrels and half-glazed door; lateral chimney stack to right of centre. Coped garden walls enclose gardens to the front and rear; a pair of gate piers at the south east angle of the front garden lead to the Hospital of St. John (q.v.), The Castle (q.v.), and St. Johns Preparatory School (q.v.). They are made of rusticated rock-faced ashlar and have pyramidal caps.

Listing NGR: SK0736242392

Hospital of St John

GV II*

Hospital, now convent and school. 1840 to circa 1847. By Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Ashlar with edged herringbone tooling; shaped tile roofs with plain tile bands and crested ridge tiles; ashlar ridge stacks with octagonal shafts and crenellated caps. 3 attached ranges grouped around a roughly square courtyard, entrance (east) range aligned north-south facing west, north and south ranges aligned east-west, projecting to the west, warden’s house attached to the west end of the north range linking it with the Chapel, now the R.C. Church of St. John the Baptist (q.v.). Entrance range: central 2 storey gabled porch with diagonal buttresses, the right hand side of the range has 2 storeys and an attic with storey bands, the left hand side has one storey and attic and single-storey lean-to gallery; 7 bays marked by buttresses, square- headed ground-floor windows with one to three cinquefoil-headed lights, first floor and attic windows to the right are mullioned and of 2 lights, cambered attic windows to left with 2 cinquefoil headed lights, all attic windows within gabled dormers; central pointed door and oriel window above. Left hand range: one storey, 3-bay range with 3-light windows and buttresses at the bay divisions, terminated to the left by the 3-storey tower of the warden’s house; the tower has 2 storey buttresses to left and right flanking a central 4-centred doorway. The Chapel, now the R.C. Church of St. John the Baptist (q.v.) is set back to the left. Right hand range: main block of 2 storeys and attic and 6 bays with a slightly lower 2-storey bay attached to the left and a 2-storey gabled tower attached to the right, surmounted by a bellcote with pyramidal steeple; the bay divisions are marked by buttresses, the ground floor windows of the main block are of 3 ogee-headed lights with short supermullions rising to a flat arch, the 2-light first-floor windows are of a similar character but have cambered arches, hipped attic dormers.

The Hospital of St. John is part of an important complex of buildings designed by Pugin for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.

B.O.E. pp. 59-60; C.L. November 24, 1960, pp. 1226-1229.

Listing NGR: SK0738642428

St John’s Preparatory School

GV II*

House now school. 1847. By Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury. Ashlar with edged herringbone tooling; plain tile roofs with crested ridge tiles; ashlar ridge stacks and integral end stacks with octagonal shafts and crenellated caps. Castellated style with Gothic details; L-shaped plan house, chapel attached to the east end to make a T-shaped plan; principal alignment east-west, 2 courtyards to the south. North front: 3-storey, 5-bay main house to the right and 2-storey, 3-bay wing to the left, 4 storey projecting corner towers to left and right, the latter has a pyramidal spire; mainly 2-light mullioned windows to the house, the towers have mainly single-light rectangular loops, the main house has 2-storey bay window to the right and to left of centre; crenellated parapets throughout; chapel set- back to the left of the house. South front: main house to left of 3 storeys and attic on basement with projecting 4-storey left hand corner tower and 2-storey right hand porch, projecting wing attached to the right, single set-back bay to the far right linking the house to the chapel which it partly obscured. Main house: 2:4 bays, transomed windows, those to ground floor have cambered arches, those to first and second floor have flat arches, all have trefoil-headed lights, gabled attic dormers to principal range with paired Caernarvon arch lights; the porch has a pointed door and block stopped hood mould, shield above bearing a rampant lion, first floor window of 2 cinquefoil headed and transomed lights under a square head; crenellated parapets throughout. Right hand wing: 2 storeys on basement; about 6 bays, the east and west sides have square headed transomed windows with cinquefoil headed lights, except those to ground floor west which are 4-centred arch windows of 2 cinquefoil headed lights; the south gable has a corbelled out oriel window to the right with brattished band to a hipped roof, and single-light stair windows to the left, the south-west corner is capped by a turret (Pugin’s “look out tower”) with pyramidal roof and openings of two 4-centred lights with panelled spandrels. Chapel: taller 2-bay chancel with semi-octagonal east end and moulded eaves cornice to a brightly coloured fishscale tile roof, hipped towards the east; tall slim pointed windows of 2-lights with encircled quatrefoil in the head. Interior: rib- vaulted roof, the ribs springing from wall shafts supported on corbels carved as angels. St. John’s Preparatory School is part of an important complex of buildings designed by Pugin for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury; its site on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Churnet Valley, and its architectural style are reminiscent of the castles of the Rhine which may have provided a source of inspiration.

B.O.E. p. 59; C.L. November 24, 1960, pp. 1226-1229.

Listing NGR: SK0731642478

The Castle

GV I

Castle remains. A castle was in existence here by 1176, some of remains are late C12 and there are additions of the first quarter of the C13. Ashlar with diagonal tooling and rubble core. The castle is situated on a hill overlooking the Churnet Valley. It was protected to the north by a precipitous cliff and to the south by a rock-cut ditch and curtain wall which enclosed an irregularly shaped site on an east-west axis; the gatehouse lay towards the west end of the south curtain and there were two wall towers towards the centre. The South Curtain: mainly late C12. The remains of the wall stretch from the south-east angle of St. John’s Preparatory School (q.v.) to the western apex of the site being interrupted by the eastern wall tower; towards the east end of the curtain is a pilaster buttress, at the western apex immediately north of the gatehouse is the base of a square buttress or turret. The parapet has been destroyed but its height and position are to be discerned on the west side of the eastern wall tower (see below). The Eastern Wall Tower: late C12 and bonded into the curtain wall. Square open backed tower with a battered base and a string course at the ground level of the castle enclosure; a blind pointed arch springs from the string course and indicates the position of a barrel vaulted chamber entered from the enclosure; above this is a central arrow loop of circa 1190 with cross slit and fishtail shaped base, to the rear of the loop is a round arched embrasure; from the level of this loop upwards the corners of the tower are chamfered. The left hand side of the tower has a rectangular loop set high up immediately in front of the former south curtain parapet, the position of which is indicated by a break in the ashlar work. On the right hand side of the tower corbelling spans the angle between tower and curtain at parapet level. The Western Wall Tower: early C13. D-shaped. Foundations only. The tower was served by a newel staircase situated in its north-west angle. The Gatehouse: early C13. Twin D-shaped towers survive to a height of approximately 10 feet, the eastern tower has a battered and offset plinth. Originally the towers flanked a central gate passage with a portcullis at its outer (southern) end, the lower part of a portcullis groove of square section survives on the east side of the passage. A mural staircase entered from a door on the west side of the passage gave access to the upper parts of the gatehouse (now destroyed). Below the level of the former gate passage and between the 2 towers is a sally-port with round arch, it gives access to a central corridor beneath the gate passage, at the north end of which a segmental-headed doorway to the west leads to the basement of the west tower and to a doorway in the north wall which probably communicated with the castle enclosure via a mural staircase. There is no indication as to how the basement of the east tower was entered, it may have been from a trap in the floor of the room above. A short length of wall extends from the front of the western tower and probably terminated the rock-cut ditch to the west and flanked one side of the former approach road. The gatehouse was undergoing consolidation work at the time the survey (June 1985) and was partly obscured by scaffolding. Derek Renn “Norman Castles in Britain” (1973) p. 352. Scheduled as an Ancient Monument.

Listing NGR: SK

The post Alton – St John the Baptist appeared first on Taking Stock.

The Sheldon family maintained a mission from the sixteenth century, first at Beoley and then, from 1783, at Chapel Farm, Heath Green. The mission at Redditch began in 1834. The church at Alvechurch and its associated facilities occupy a former Victorian school which was acquired in about 1970. Alvechurch is still part of the parish of Redditch, being served from Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The church occupies a red-brick, single-storey Victorian former school, with steep peg tile roofs. It is a homely domestic design with a few Gothic touches in the fenestration. The windows are wooden-framed. The worship area is an L-shaped space with a suspended ceiling, which formed part of the core of the school. There are no furnishings of particular note. Leading off it are other spaces which are used for a kitchen, meetings, catechism etc.

The post Alvechurch – St Mary appeared first on Taking Stock.

In 1926, Fr Hall of St Francis of Assisi, Bedworth leased this site from the local coal mine owner and built a small timber church to serve the village, which was filling with coal miners, many from the north of England. Arley was in Bedworth parish but equidistant from the parish of Our Lady of the Angels, Nuneaton and for many years, priests came here from one or other church. About 1953, Fr Cox of Nuneaton bought a slightly smaller plot of land on the other side of the road to build a presbytery – or a church if the lease fell through. Money began to be raised, but went towards improvements to the church and the building of a timber parish clubroom in 1955. Meanwhile, the National Coal Board had taken over the lease, maintaining the small annual rent. In 1962, the option of buying the church plot was considered and ultimately the diocese sold their land on the opposite side of the road and purchased the present church site.

The parish of St Anne, Camp Hill Nuneaton was established in 1949 and Arley was transferred to it in 1955. In 1996, the Rev. Michael Stack of St Anne’s engaged architect John D. Holmes of Leamington to build St Joseph’s, replacing both timber buildings. Planning permission was given for a church, meeting room and car park on 7 May 1996. The foundation stone (beside the entrance) was blessed by Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville on 12 December 1996.

Description

St Joseph’s is orientated northeast to southwest, the altar actually facing southwest. For the purposes of this report liturgical points will be used, i.e. the altar at the east.

This small church is cruciform in plan, with steep roofs covered with concrete slates dropping down to low walls of straw coloured brick. Every seventh course is raised and there is a blue brick soldier course running around the entire building at the level of the gable bases as well as a blue brick plinth. At the apex of the four big gables with deep eaves are triangular windows; the gable facing the road also has a large raised red brick cross (the sanctuary is behind), those to the sides have doors below the windows (the main entrance on the right, the kitchen door to the left). The rear gable is plain and the roof ridges are crested. There are pairs of high level rooflights on the two right hand slopes (so facing geographical southeast).

The post Arley – St Joseph appeared first on Taking Stock.

Mass centres were established by Jesuits at The Rudge and Gerards Manley from 1760. In 1789 Mass was said at the house of Mr Brown, a farmer at Napely Heath, by the French émigré priest, Abbé Louis Martin de Laistre. In 1791, soon after the passing of the Second Catholic Relief Act, the Rev. Thomas Howel (sic) of Swynnerton registered a house-cum-chapel at Ashley and dedicated it to St John the Baptist. Then in 1795 Abbé de Laistre was able to build a house-cum-chapel in the village.  After his death in 1813 Ashley was served from Swynnerton.

The present church, built on land donated by Rachel Caulkin, was designed by the Rev. James Egan (cf. Holy Trinity, Newcastle, of some ten years later) and was opened on 18 October 1823 with a dedication to St Bridgit (the present dedication was settled on in the 1830s). Fr Egan was to serve as resident parish priest from 1825 to 1829, when he left for Newcastle-under-Lyme.

The lean-to on the (liturgical) south side appears to be a later addition (possibly 1954), and is not particularly sympathetic with the original design.  Other changes have included:

• 1901: Replacement of the original (1823) stained glass windows with frosted glass
• 1944: Replastering of the interior following an outbreak of dry rot
• 1952: Renovation of the Lady Chapel and its rededication to Our Lady of Walsingham. Also about this time new benches were installed, the sanctuary enlarged and the plaster ceiling decorated
• 1962: Anticipating the changes of the Second Vatican Council, the sanctuary steps and altar rails were removed
• 1966: The entrance porch on the (liturgical) north side was made into a baptistery and the original castellated porch at the (liturgical) west end rebuilt in a larger, gabled form
• c1988: Opening up of the lean-to side addition at the (liturgical) east end to provide more space for the congregation, facing towards the sanctuary. At the same time the presbytery was extended
• 2006: Extensive English Heritage grant-aided repairs carried out under architects Wood, Goldstraw & Yorath of Hanley, including new windows and stained glass, made by Goode & Davies, which was installed in the high level lights.

Since 2003 the church has been served from Clayton (at the time of writing the presbytery is unoccupied, but it is intended to be let).

Description

The list description (below) describes the building at the time of listing (1985). Since then, the concrete tiles mentioned in the list entry have been replaced with Welsh slates as part of the renovations of 2006. It describes the entrance porch as flat-roofed, whereas it has a pitched roof.

The writer of the list entry was understandably perplexed by this extraordinary design, referring to ‘Moorish Gothic’ and adding, with considerable understatement, ‘The complex presents a somewhat bizarre impression, reminiscent of North Africa or southern Spain, not common in north-west Staffordshire.’ For Pevsner, however, a southern hemisphere feeling suggested itself; he said this ‘lovable little building [is] so naïve that you would expect it in some dorp in South Africa rather than in Staffordshire.’ How Fr Egan came to alight upon such a design, or indeed that for his much more ambitious Newcastle church, is, to say the least, a puzzle, but the results are remarkable. The horizontal bands on the entrance front can be seen as modest precursors to his treatment of the west front at Newcastle.

As the list description points out, inside the church only the ceiling and western gallery are original. The other furnishings are twentieth or early twenty-first century in date, and not of particular note.

List description

II

Roman Catholic church and attached presbytery. 1823 with later additions and alterations. Stuccoed brick with concrete tile roof to church and clay tiles to presbytery. Moorish Gothic style. Aligned north-west to south-east. Church: 3½ bays divided by buttresses with 2 pairs of pointed windows under curved triangular hoods to each bay; plain horizontal and toothed brick bands above and below windows and also to eaves; plain gabled ‘south’ porch in first bay from ‘west’, ‘Ritual West’ front: 3 pairs of pointed windows (as on ‘south’) underneath castellated parapet with 2 bands of narrow, pointed blank arcading; C20 flat-roofed entrance porch in front and to the ‘north’ a catslide roof extending full length of church.

Interior: the only features of note are the original plastered and painted ceiling and the ‘western’ gallery; all the other fittings and furnishings are late C20.

Presbytery: attached to north-west; 2 storeys, 3 windows to ‘south’ with central one blind, floor band; entrance to rear.

The complex presents a somewhat bizarre impression, reminiscent of North Africa or southern Spain, not common in north-west Staffordshire. B.O.E., p.63.

The post Ashley – Our Blessed Lady and St John the Baptist appeared first on Taking Stock.

The site has a long and complex history, which would benefit from more detailed research than is offered here. The following is an attempt to discern the chronology but is based on existing published accounts and limited observation.

Aston Hall is on an ancient site delineated by a large dry moat. By the sixteenth century it had passed to the recusant Heveningham family. The house was rebuilt in rather stark style probably in the eighteenth century and passed by marriage to the Simeon family. In about 1757 Sir James Simeon built a family mausoleum beyond the moat. The estate passed to the Weld family of Lulworth in 1767, who commissioned John Tasker to rebuild the house in about 1798. In 1814 Cardinal Weld handed the hall over to serve as a noviciate for the English Franciscans, and Bridgettine nuns were here from 1829-37.

Shortly after his arrival in 1838, the Rev. Benjamin Hulme discovered the relics of St Chad under the altar in the hall chapel. These were translated to Oscott and thence to St Chad’s, Birmingham (qv).

In 1842 Domenic Barberi arrived from Italy and founded a Passionist novitiate at the hall. A convent and chapel were built from designs by C. F. Hansom in 1847-9. Barberi died suddenly in 1849 just before the church opened. He is famous for his missionary work and for receiving John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church in 1845. He was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1963.

The Passionists gave up the mission in 1854 and in 1855 the site was acquired by the Rev. (Canon) Edward Huddlestone. He rebuilt the hall in 1856 from designs by E. W. Pugin, who also designed a Lady Chapel extension to the Hansom church. A presbytery/school followed in 1858. Canon Huddlestone died in 1871 and was buried in the Simeon mausoleum, along with six other priests and religious between 1824 and 1844.

It is possible that Hansom and Pugin’s church survives in part (the truncated stone tower and short chapel at the rear of the present hall). Otherwise, it was later deemed unsafe and demolished. It may be that fabric from Hansom’s church was used in the present church, rebuilt on a nearby site, the foundation stone for which was laid in January 1882. The design of the rebuilt church certainly bears similarities to other designs by Hansom, and the involvement of his nephew J. S Hansom cannot be ruled out (the church was served at this time from Stone, where in 1889 the younger Hansom designed the tomb and effigy for Archbishop Ullathorne). The HCC list gives James Trubsham as the architect for the rebuilding, but the source for this attribution is not clear and may be a confusion with the architect of that name credited (in its list entry) with the design of the earlier (1846) Anglican church of St Saviour, Aston-by-Stone (which in itself is a likely misprint for James Trubshaw (1804-75), see note in Colvin, p.1055).

An early (undated) photograph of the interior of the 1882 church shows a rood screen with figures, now removed. According to historical notes in the diocesan archives, the small tower was added in 1899.

The graveyard and mausoleum, now closed, were used for the burials of local people and inhabitants of the hall, including priests and Bridgettine nuns, during the nineteenth century.

In 1961 Aston Hall was purchased by Cyril Hartley KSG, who gave it to the diocese as a home for retired and convalescent priests, in which use it remains. The former presbytery/school has been converted to flats associated with this use. The church is served from Stone.

Description

All orientations given are liturgical. The church was built in 1882, possibly incorporating material from Charles Hansom’s predecessor church of 1847-9. It is built of stone and consists of an aisleless nave, chancel of the same height, short northeast tower and transeptal vestry. The tower was added in 1899 and is of square section with a pyramidal slated roof, of stonework which differs from that of the rest of the building. Windows are a mixture of lancets, small spherical-triangular windows, and larger windows of broadly Decorated character. There is a west gallery, ribbed timber roof and tall chancel arch. A high altar of stone is carved with a Crucifixion and other scenes. There is also a simple forward altar and a crucifix hangs from the chancel arch (part of a former rood screen, now removed).  Stained glass in the east window appears to be by Hardman, or possibly Wailes; its character is more typical of the 1850s or sixties than the 1880s, suggesting the window may have come from the predecessor church. The sacristy contains the remains of a timber confessional.

List description (the church was listed Grade II in 2016, following Taking Stock)

A Roman Catholic parish church of c.1882, possibly designed by James Trubshaw, and incorporating fabric from an earlier church of 1847-49 which was designed by CF Hansom.

Reasons for designation: The church of Holy Michael Archangel, Aston, Stone is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural quality: despite the relative plainness of the church built in 1882, it contains rich furnishings, designed by CF Hansom and brought from the former site of the chapel. These include stained glass, tracery and a carved altar, pulpit and font. * Historic associations: the manor house and later the convent at Aston have a long association with recusant Catholicism in England and were the site of the safekeeping of the bones and St Chad and of the mission founded by Saint Dominic Barberi, who converted Saint John Newman and who commissioned the furnishings now placed in this present church.

History: The site is an ancient one with a large moat (now dry). In the C16 the site passed to the Heveningham family and from them it went to the Simeon family. In about 1757 Sir James Simeon built a family mausoleum to the south-west of the moat which survives (Grade II). The estate passed to the Roman Catholic Weld family who commissioned a design for a house from John Tasker c.1798. This house was then given to the English Franciscans to serve as a noviciate and Bridgettine nuns were in residence from 1829-37. In 1838 the bones of St Chad were discovered under the altar in the hall chapel, having been brought to the site for safekeeping from Lichfield Cathedral at the Reformation. In 1842 Dominic Barberi arrived from Italy and founded a Passionist novitiate at the hall. A small convent and chapel with a courtyard plan were designed and built for him by CF Hansom in 1847-9 and placed on a corner of the moated island – a location which must have created interesting reflections before the moat was drained, but which proved unstable. Barberi was responsible for receiving John Henry Neman into the Roman Catholic church in 1845 and was himself beatified in 1963. Following Barberi’s death in 1849, the Passionists gave up the mission and the site was bought in 1855 by Revd. Canon Edward Huddlestone. It seems likely that the Hansom building was already showing signs of instability and Hansom employed EW Pugin to rebuild part of the convent buildings, perhaps using some of the earlier foundations. The present Aston Hall, appears to include an earlier wing, which formed part of Hansom’s convent building. The Hansom chapel was demolished in the 1880s and the present, smaller church was built to the north west of the moat. It is believed that salvaged features from the earlier convent were reused in the new church, most particularly window surrounds and furnishings, but probably also squared blocks of stonework . From 1959 the house has been owned by the Birmingham Roman Catholic Diocese and run as a guest house for retired and convalescent priests. The small tower housing the sanctus bell, to the north east of the church, was added in 1899 according to the diocesan archives.

Details: A Roman Catholic parish church of c.1882, possibly designed by James Trubshaw, and incorporating fabric from an earlier church of 1847-49 which was designed by CF Hansom. MATERIALS: sandstone with a plain tile roof. PLAN: the church is aisleless, with a chancel, northern vestry and western gallery. The small sanctus bell tower to the north of the chancel was added in 1899. EXTERIOR: the nave and chancel have the same height of ridge, but the division between them is marked by a visible coping stones above the sanctuary arch, which perhaps supported the sanctus bellcote before the small tower was built. The south-western flank of the building has four bays to the nave, defined by buttresses with offsets. Windows are arcuated triangles with a single lancet and a triple lancet. The chancel has a window of paired lancets. The north-west gabled end has buttresses to the corners and three arcuated triangle lights to the gable above two lancets. The north-east flank has an arched doorway at right with a plank door. To left of this are two, two-light windows with cusped heads to the lights and quatrefoils to the apex. At left again is the projecting, gabled vestry, which has a chimney to its right flank and an arched priest’s doorway to its left flank. The gable end has a three-light window with heavy hood mould, and there is a quatrefoil to the gable. The chancel has a window with paired lancets. To the left of this the later bell tower projects, and has a lancet window to the lower stage, with a door to its right flank. The upper stage has paired and single lancets to the belfry and the spire roof is square on plan with a slate roof. The south-east (ritual east) end has a window of three lights with cusped heads and with a circle to the tracery at the top containing three arcuated triangles with cusps. INTERIOR: the roof is formed of common rafters, each with angle braces and long ashlar pieces. The flooring is tiled with alternating red and black tiles to the nave and patterned encaustic tiles to the chancel which include a memorial tile with the lettering ’E+H / RIP’ for Edward Huddlestone, who died in 1871. The font at the western end is octagonal with recessed panels carved in deep relief representing the Evangelists, the Pelican in her Piety, Agnus Dei and Holy initials. The stone pulpit has a panelled front including the lettering ‘IHC’ and is approached by a staircase with a wrought iron balustrade. The stone altar has five panels to its front showing the crucifixion at centre, flanked by figures of St George and St Michael. To the right is the Nativity and at right is the Coronation of the Virgin. The altar, together with its ledge are notably deep and may indicate some later adjustment to the altar or inclusion of earlier fabric. The tabernacle has richly enamelled and engraved doors and is inscribed to its flanks with wording that clearly predates the present building; the left flank reads ‘HOC TABERNACULUM, / IN HONOREM / SANCTUTIMI SACRAMANT / DONO DEDIT.’ and the right flank reads ‘JOANNA BILLINGTON / DE MANCHESTER / A.D. MDCCCXLIX.’ (ie 1849, the year of the completion of Hansom’s convent buildings). Stained glass in the western window appears to be of mid-C19 date and shows a figure of St Michael flanked by St Peter and St Paul. The heart and cross in the central light are the symbol of the Passionists, who left Aston in 1854. Stained glass of a similar date is in the triple lancet window on the south-western flank.

Sources

Books and journals: Drinkwater, FH , Aston Hall by Stone, (1976)

The post Aston-by-Stone – Holy Michael Archangel appeared first on Taking Stock.

From the late eighteenth century, priests (including French abbés) from Caldecote Hall came to say Mass in houses in Atherstone. Dominican friars from Hinckley established a mission here in 1828 and Bishop Ullathorne encouraged Dominican nuns to build a new convent here. With money collected locally and a £500 donation from Ambrose Phillips de Lisle of Grace Dieu, Leicestershire, the foundation stone was laid on 18 October 1837 by de Lisle and the Rosary Convent designed by Joseph Hansom opened in 1839. The Dominicans withdrew in 1858 and the Benedictine nuns of Colwich bought the convent and became resident in the renamed St Scholastica Priory in May 1859. This was demolished in 1967, and houses now occupy the site.

The Rosary Convent chapel had been used by Atherstone Catholics but as the nuns were an enclosed Order, land for a separate church was acquired in Owen Street. Charles Alban Buckler, perhaps better known as an illustrator than an architect, built St Benedict’s with a school behind in 1859. The convent provided priests until a resident priest was appointed in 1876; a presbytery had been built in 1870. The primary school behind the church (perhaps by Robert Jennings, 1859-60) moved to a new site about a mile away in 1964 and was mainly replaced by a new flat-roofed parish hall, with one old classroom retained and refurbished as the Tudor Room.

In the 1960s, many of the original timber furnishings were replaced because of woodworm, and an underfloor heating system installed (which did not work for long). On the demolition of the Priory in 1967, the stone altar from the chapel was taken to the Anglican parish church, but the dismantled, damaged reredos ended up in a builders’ yard. It was rediscovered in about 1978 and two panels were re-erected at the east end of St Benedict’s, flanking the tabernacle. In 1989 the present sanctuary arrangement was created with new altar, font and ambo of polished Portland stone.

Description

The church sits squarely on the corner of Owen Street and St Benedict’s Close, so the altar is actually facing northwest. For the purposes of this report, it will be presumed to be at the east.

The Gothic church of St Benedict was built in 1859 in red brick and stone dressings with a tiled roof by Charles Alban Buckler, with a school behind possibly by Robert Jennings, 1859-60. A presbytery was added to the north in 1870 with a link to the northeast end of the nave, just east of a little tower extension for the confessional. The plan is a simple rectangle, with the steeply-pitched roof running straight through to end in a three-sided apse, each side with a tall, brick gabled dormer apparently cantilevered off the walls. The windows are mainly single cusped lancets, with a two-light south window lighting the sanctuary steps and a cinquefoil roundel to each side of the apse (the central blocked). The west front rises to a single bell turret, with a three-lancet plate tracery west window with two small trefoil roundels and a pointed arch west door.

The interior is articulated by the black timbers of the roof; four arch braced trusses rise from stone corbels to a high collar with struts, so dividing the space into three bays, with a half bay before the sanctuary. Each bay then has a strong mid-bay principal rafter and there are two purlins and a ridge piece. The iron tie-rods were presumably inserted later as the walls appear to lean out. The apse is roofed by four trusses rising from stone corbels to meet below the apex of the tiled roof, enhanced by the addition of two further short struts from the eastern nave truss. Each dormer has a pitched roof with small tracery spandrels – the only roof tracery, as there is no ‘chancel arch’ as such. All the main timbers are chamfered.

The west gallery front is currently boarded but has an exposed ironwork rail. Below it a narthex is formed by traceried framing with leaded lights (1920s?), with the southern third open to the church as a Lady Chapel. The statues of Our Lady and the Sacred Heart with their inverted Corinthian capital pedestals are from the chapel of St Scholastica’s Priory. The solid nave floor is of the 1960s, as are the benches.

The present carpeted wooden sanctuary platform was created in 1989, with altar, font and ambo of polished Portland stone. The second platform for the altar makes an awkward junction with the north ambo. The gilt tabernacle sits in a recess in the east wall, flanked by the two sculpted panels salvaged from the middle section of the high altar of St Scholastica’s Priory in 1967 and installed here in about 1978. To the left is St Benedict giving the Eucharist to his monks ‘Adoremus in Terram’ and to the right, St Scholastica on her deathbed receiving Viaticum from her twin brother, ‘S S Sacramentum’. The sculptor is not recorded (possibly Boultons of Cheltenham) but they are of good quality and presumably belong to the 1861 enhancements to the convent chapel by Joseph and Charles Hansom. The two apse cinquefoils contain stained glass (IHS to the north, MR to the south) and the central dormer has the standing figure of St Benedict, all probably of 1859 by Hardman. The north lancets have 1986 and 1993 memorial glass by Norgrove Studios.

The post Atherstone – St Benedict appeared first on Taking Stock.