The church of St Mary in Sussex Street, Middlesbrough, was built in 1876-8 from designs by Goldie and Child, to replace a previous chapel. It was made the cathedral in 1879. By the mid-1970s the population exodus from inner Middlesbrough was stimulating ideas of a new cathedral and in 1976 it was decided to build it at Coulby Newham towards the southern end of the built-up area. The original architect was Frank B. Swainston whose practice had been responsible for  churches at Teesville, Redcar and Nunthorpe (qqv). He died in 1982, shortly after the outline design had been prepared, and his partner, Peter Fenton, developed the detailed drawings and designed the furnishings. Construction started in 1985 and the building was completed in 1987. The Swainston Partnership was merged in 2000 with DKS Architects of Middlesbrough in 2000.

The original cathedral was demolished after being severely damaged by fire in 2000.

Description

All directions stated are geographic (rather than liturgical).

The complex consists of the cathedral church itself (oriented south-west) with a presbytery (north-east) and church hall and ancillary facilities (north-west). There is also a campanile attached to the church hall wing. The entrance to the church (on its western side) incorporates a large narthex and a repository. The church can accommodate some 700 people and also has a Blessed Sacrament chapel between it and the sacristy/presbytery.

Construction throughout is in orange-brown brick over a structural steel frame. The church lies under by a low, irregularly-shaped pyramid-like roof, covered like the rest of the buildings, in grey slate. The church roof is fractured into different levels and these differences are exploited by filling them with strips of glazing which, with the kite-shaped window over the altar, form the main illumination for the building. The campanile, the highest structure on the site, makes much use of sheer vertical brick strips and has, attached to it, three bells which can be chimed.

The interior is laid out in accordance with the principles of Vatican II and is a broad fan-shape with a raked floor focusing upon the altar and reredos. There is no internal separation or nor any supports apart from a slender brick pier on either side. The walls are of bare brick. The ceiling presents a series of interlocking plates of varied geometry which follow the lines of the structural frame. The Blessed Sacrament chapel lies to the left of the sanctuary with a glazed screen between the two (removable for special occasions).

Behind the altar is a tall abstract painted reredos by Robert Brumby, which is said to represent resurrection. Right of the sanctuary is an organ in a Gothic case.

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The church and adjacent school were built by Ampleforth Abbey to serve Ampleforth village, the church being dedicated by the abbot on Whit Sunday, 17 May 1907. It is built in a plain lancet Gothic style, of local stone (from the Sleightholmedale quarries) under a slate roof. No architect was employed; ‘it is of such a simple nature that those in charge of the work and the builders were able to carry it out from their own designs ‘ (Ampleforth Journal, 1907).  Frank Thompson and William Worthy, both of Ampleforth, were mason and joiner respectively. The church cost about £600, excluding furnishings, and as originally built seated about 120. It appears to have consisted of a long nave with porch, continuous chancel and sacristy. There was a triple lancet window and a raised bellcote at the west end and paired lancet windows lit the nave and chancel. Mr and Mrs Frank Thompson presented a Carrara marble holy water stoup for the porch, acquired in Genoa and in the form of an angel holding a shell. Cathedral glass was provided for the lancet windows by Atkinson & Sons of Newcastle.

In 1988 the church was substantially but seamlessly enlarged, with transepts and low squat towers added on the north and south sides, in matching materials and style and subsuming the original porch.  The designs for these additions were provided by the well-known conservation architect Martin Stancliffe. The towers each have a louvred top stage and pyramidal roof; the main entrance to the church is now through a porch in the north tower, and the church is entered via a panelled oak door in memory of Fr Paul Neville, priest of Ampleforth 1914-24.

Inside, the transept additions create what is effectively a Greek cross plan. The seating consists of freestanding oak benches arranged around a forward stone altar, the latter installed as part of the 1988 reordering and extension. However, the dominant feature of the interior is the painting over the former high altar (the original oak reredos survives and incorporates a shelf for the tabernacle, with a canopy over). The painting depicts Christ enthroned and adored by figures of Our Lady and St Joseph and Benedictine saints. It was painted in 1915 by Brother Philip Jarvis, an Ampleforth novice. Other original or early sanctuary furnishings include oak doors to the sacristy on either side of the reredos, an oak lectern carved by Robert Thompson of Kilburn (with his trademark mouse signature) and two pairs of stained glass windows in memory of Dom Oswald Swarbrick OSB and Dom Anselm Turner OSB, both signed MMW and dated 1933. The stone font, with hexagonal bowl, stem and steps and an oak cover, is presumably of c.1907; it is now located in the north transept.

The roof consists of arched braces rising from corbels with collars and double purlins, with boarding above. The ‘crossing’ is marked by quadripartite arched bracing, presumably dating from 1988. An oak screen at the west end of the nave serves to create a gathering space and narthex area. Store rooms and a reconciliation room have also been created at the west end.

Entry amended by AHP 29.09.2026

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For its first fifty years the Benedictine community at Ampleforth worshipped in a chapel in the west wing of the Old House, given by Anne Fairfax in 1803 (latterly St Oswald’s, demolished in 1985 to make way for the present main reception building). However, in 1855 work began on a new chapel, built at a cost of £3,000 to the designs of Charles Hansom. This was a two-cell Gothic revival church built from stone quarried from behind the monastery.

The community and school soon outgrew Hansom’s chapel, and its replacement was being discussed as early as 1903. However, it was not until 1919 that Giles Gilbert Scott, architect of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and a Catholic, was asked to prepare plans. The foundation stones for Scott’s replacement were laid on 1 August 1922 and the first part of his design, consisting of a retrochoir and high altar over a crypt with four chapels, was completed by 1924. This was built against the west end of Hansom’s church, which was retained as the nave of the new church pending the completion of Scott’s design. This required a reversal of the conventional orientation, so that the ‘ritual’ east end of Scott’s church lies to the geographical west.

Hansom’s church was finally pulled down in 1957 and the foundations laid for Scott’s nave, also built over a crypt. The church was completed in September 1961 (Scott had died in February 1960).

Description 

See link to revised list description, below.

The interior of the church has a pronounced southwest French Romanesque character, deriving from the domed churches of Aquitaine. The external character is more English, early Gothic in character. While the 1922 work has rich sculptural adornment, the later work is stripped and unadorned. The same distinction applies in the crypt, which has a more pronounced Romanesque character.

The early work is externally faced with Bramley Fall stone (near Leeds), and inside with rough plaster. Oxfordshire blue Hornton stone is used for the arches, piers, string courses, windows and door frames.  The later work is of brick, externally faced with Dunhouse stone from Staindrop, County Durham (the original stone no longer being available in sufficient quantities). The internal walls are faced with rough plaster; Hornton stone was omitted for reasons of economy and simplicity.

The church is centrally planned on an east-west axis. It is 175ft long and 140ft across the transepts. The height of the tower is 122ft. Inside, the height of the central dome above the floor of the sanctuary is 72ft, and that of the nave dome from the floor of the nave is 61ft. The nave floor is lowered a few feet below that of the aisles. This was a device also used by Scott at Liverpool Cathedral, in both cases possibly to create a semi-independent space for less formal gatherings. It also allows a better view of the high altar for people at the back of the church and has the effect of accentuating the height of the nave arcades.

The church seats 800 people and has choir stalls for 87 monks. The focus of the interior is Scott’s high altar, moved eleven feet eastwards in August 1960, to give a better view from the new transepts. It was designed by Scott and built in 1925; the carvings and statuary are by W.D. Gough. The large number of altars required for the community (before the days of liturgical concelebration) are located primarily in the crypt – here there are two large chapels and twenty-three smaller ones.

In addition to the main altar, the following fittings are particularly worthy of mention:

Stained glass:

• The church contains much glass by Patrick Reyntiens (a former pupil of the school) and his son John – in the Lady Chapel (an Annunciation of 1961), south transept (2002), Holy Cross chapel (2004) and Memorial Chapel
• Glass by James Powell and Sons in the north transept and over the stairs to the crypt, originally in the Memorial Chapel (1925-35)
• West window (in choir), on the theme of Christ the King, by Herbert Hendrie of Edinburgh(1928)
• Windows by Geoffrey Webb in St Benet’s chapel, on a Benedictine theme – Webb’s two sons became monks
• End windows, south aisle, St Martin and St Bernard, by Hendrie
• Some medieval glass over the doors to the sacristy in the north aisle
• Further glass by Geoffrey Webb in the main crypt chapels.

Sculpture:

• Choir stalls, designed by Scott and carved by Robert Thompson of Kilburn (known for his trademark mouse signature)
• Reredos in Memorial chapel, carved in wood by Stuflessers, painted by Harpers of London, from designs by Scott
• Reredos, St Benet’s chapel by William Milburn of York, in memory of his son Leonard (d.1922)
• Fourteenth-century statue of Our Lady, from the Rhineland, in the Lady Chapel
• Italian crucifix circa 1500, in the Holy Cross chapel
• Medieval alabaster carving of the Trinity in St Benet’s chapel
• In the crypt, a series of Welsh slate Stations of the Cross and a large Madonna and Child in blue Hornton stone, by Jonah Jones
• Bronze crucifix and candlesticks in St Alban Roe’s chapel, by Leon Underwood (1961).

The organ: in the north transept, by J. W. Walker & Sons, from a design by Scott (completed 1961).

Outside the church is a large bronze statue of St Benedict by Judy Brown (1997), given in memory of Bernard Rochford and his family. 

Text amended and new photos added by AHP 23.07.2025

List description

The church was upgraded to Grade I in 2016, following Taking Stock. See revised list entry at The Abbey Church, Ampleforth – 1315767 | Historic England

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There was apparently a Mass centre at Aiskew Grange by 1771 and the Aiskew priests also served the congregation at Northallerton. The first church in the area was built in 1812. The present church was built at the expense of the Scrope family, from designs by George Goldie, the York-born architect who built widely in the diocese.

Description

The church is built of rough-faced local stone, squared and coursed; the nave roof is covered with Welsh slate, the sanctuary roof with red concrete tiles. The plan comprises an aisleless nave with a small northwest apsidal projection which was probably the baptistery originally but has been converted to serve as a porch, and a short chancel or sanctuary.  The west end fronting the road has a central pointed doorway, now blocked, with an elaborate traceried rose window above; the west gable rises steeply to finish in a tall bell-cote with twin openings. The earlier presbytery is attached to the south side. On the north side is the projecting porch, with modern steps, and a nave of three bays divided by simple buttresses with a two-light traceried window at the head of each bay under the eaves. The sanctuary has two lancet windows on the north side, with a four-light traceried window in the east end wall.

The interior is simply finished with plain plastered walls, the windows high up, and with handsome rafter roofs over both nave and sanctuary, the spaces between the rafters now filled with modern painted boarding. The church is carpeted throughout, the nave is furnished with timber benches, the sanctuary has been reordered and the altar brought forward. The iron altar rails are modern. The central nave window has an 1880s stained glass memorial window; the glass in the east window is a 1940s memorial window to Sir Hugh Smith Dodsworth Bt. The other windows are clear glazed.

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A private Catholic place of worship in Beverley is recorded in 1791 and the first church was built in 1846, with a school and presbytery alongside. In a pastoral letter of 1896 the Bishop of Middlesbrough (in whose diocese Beverley now was) wrote ‘Though for so many years it had the honour of giving its title to the former Yorkshire diocese, its Church, if so we may call it, is probably, without exception, the most wretched in the whole of Yorkshire’. However wretched, it served until the present church was built in 1897-8 by the Hull architects, Smith, Brodrick & Lowther, who designed several Catholic and other churches in East Yorkshire. The church cost £1,560 and was paid for by Lady Sykes of Sledmere.

Description

The church was listed in 1987 and the list description (below) is broadly accurate, but is brief and predates some significant changes carried out in 1999.

The dressings are of terracotta, not ashlar as stated in the list entry. Although low and set back, the church has a busy frontage to the street of playful irregularity with its pinched-up gables, crocketted hoodmoulds and castellated tower of polygonal form, all presented in orange brick lavishly intermingled with cream terracotta. After the panache of the frontage the largely hidden side elevations are much more subdued, in yellow brick (intermingling with the orange bricks in the lower part of the tower), with bald window tracery, like cardboard cut outs. The oculus east window is a 1999 alteration of a previously tripartite window. To the rear are parish rooms etc, of 1999 by Andy Sangwin of Building Design (Beverley), linked to the former Catholic chapel behind.

After the flourish of the frontage the interior is disappointingly plain. Plastered walls and boarded roof on simple A-trusses, the purlins with modest embellishment. West gallery with a glazed screen (1999) set back beneath. Pretty organ case (circa 1995 by Kenneth Tickell Ltd of Northampton) cantilevered from the centre of the gallery. Lady Chapel enlarged and rebuilt in 1999, at a right angle to the sanctuary. The roof of the old chapel is hung as a kind of tester or baldacchino. Altar and elaborate Gothic reredos, eighteenth century Austrian, set within a side-lit projecting bay. Regrettably it is taller than the segmental arch into the bay. Heavy stone and marble main altar, brought forward from the tabernacle which stands on a stone plinth against the east wall. Standing on a corbel on the north wall is a statue of St John of Beverley, possibly medieval though in very good condition and more likely to have come from the Minster in the late nineteenth century when new statues were placed in vacant niches on the west front. Two 1920s stained glass windows, one on the north and one on the south side, in fifteenth century style, possibly the work of Geoffrey Webb (who trained with Kempe and Comper). The altar rails were removed in 1970 as part of the alterations following Vatican II. The Stations of the Cross, painted on metal, were originally in oak frames but were cut down in 1948 and fixed to the walls.

Entry amended by AHP 27.10.2025

List description

II

Church. 1897-8 by Smith, Brodrick and Lowther. Red and brown brick with ashlar dressings and banding. Welsh slate roof. Gothic Revival style. Unaisled continuous 5-bay nave and chancel with canted east end and south chapel. Single-storey porch forms passage across west end. Tudor-arched entrance with statue of St John in niche above. Flat-arched traceried windows. Above, a pair of 3-light basket-arched windows with decorated tracery under crocketed ogee gables. Statue of Virgin and Child in niche to gable. Bell tower to left. Nave and chancel: 2-light Tudor-arched windows with flush tracery in Decorated style. Oculus to east end.

The post Beverley – St John of Beverley appeared first on Taking Stock.

A mission was established in Bridlington around 1855 with the priest coming over from Beverley to say Mass in private houses. Bridlington’s first priest, Rev Henry Green, arrived in 1867, renting a room in the Victoria Rooms on Garrison Street for use as a chapel which was dedicated to St William. In 1868 it was reported that there were thirty-five Catholics in the town. Rev John Murphy took over the mission in 1884 and built a cruciform iron church on Wellington Road (then called Prospect Row) in 1886. Fr Murphy’s successor, Rev James Clancy purchased the present site in Victoria Road and commissioned Smith, Brodrick & Lowther of Hull to design the church at a cost of £1,870 (The Tablet, 26 August 1893). The foundation stone was laid on 19 August 1893 and almost exactly a year later, on 1 September 1894, the church was opened. Unusually all costs were paid for before the opening, largely through the generosity of Mrs Mousley, of the Boynton family. The Dominican Sisters ran a school in the parish from 1895.

Description

The church is in Early English Gothic style, faced in red brick with Hoptonwood stone dressings (largely confined to the west front). Steep Welsh slate roof. Continuous nave and sanctuary, lean-to aisles. Externally, all the show is confined to the west front, which has angle buttresses with stone gablets and pinnacles. Tripartite arrangement between the buttresses. Pointed arched doorway in the centre with a trefoiled arch within, flanked by two two-light windows with Geometrical tracery. Hoodmoulds with label stops and an unusual rectilinear arrangement of applied stone pinnacles and mouldings above. Between the three stepped windows above are stone niches with statues. Trefoil-headed single outer lights and a centre two-light window with a cusped circle in the tracery. The aisles to either side are of unequal height, as there is an upper room to the north aisle, and have a single lancet each. To the left a link building to the presbytery has an entrance serving both church and presbytery. The sides of the church are remarkably plain, with single and paired lancet windows. The east end has a canted apse with two-light windows with cusped Y-tracery set high up.

The interior is plastered and painted apart from the arcade piers, giving an effect of lightness. Four bay nave arcades with octagonal piers, moulded capitals and arches with hoodmoulds and two orders of hollow mouldings. Lower arches at the west end as the organ/choir gallery fills the westernmost bay. Paired lancet windows to the clerestory. Canted boarded and painted roofs, the trusses carried down to the walls on corbels. The sanctuary arch rests on polished Hoptonwood shafts and foliate capitals. Stone main altar with a trefoiled arcade with inset panels of white Sicilian marbles. Gabled and pinnacled tabernacle and canted reredos. The tabernacle and reredos were brought from the earlier church; the altar dates from 1907. 2005 table altar standing in front of the old altar. Stone ambo of the same time. The font stands at the west end of the north aisle, small, the octagonal bowl with sunken panels, supported on a cluster of polished granite shafts. Chapel at the east end of the north aisle with a stone altar slab supported on polished stone columns, the reredos with a statue of Christ flanked by blind tracery with carved foliage. The window above has heavy tracery of reticulated character. Similar window at the east end of the south aisle. Original open-backed pews, running through both nave and aisle, with poppyheads and quatrefoil panels in the ends. Encaustic tiled floors mostly replaced with a Granolithic-type composite flooring. The sanctuary was carpeted when it was refurbished in 2005 (DKS Architects). Coloured glass in geometric patters to most windows, stained glass in a few, especially the sanctuary windows (figures of saints). Stations of the Cross, plaster reliefs set in quatrefoils.

Entry amended by AHP 4.1.2021

List description (the church and presbytery were listed in 2015, following Taking Stock)

II

Summary: Late Victorian gothic style Roman Catholic church and attached presbytery by the architectural practice of Smith, Brown and Lowther of Hull, 1893-4.The later church hall attached to the west of the church is not included in the listing.

Reasons for Designation: The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady and St Peter, with attached presbytery, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architectural interest: as a good example of a late Victorian Roman Catholic church built in gothic style; * Composition: the street elevation of the church and attached presbytery is of particular note.

History: The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady and St Peter with its adjoining presbytery was designed by the Hull firm of Smith, Brown and Lowther and opened on 1st September 1894. It was commissioned by the town’s third post-reformation Catholic priest, Fr. James Clancy, the £1,870 cost being largely paid for by Mrs Mousley (nee Boynton).

Details: Roman Catholic church, by Smith, Brown and Lowther of Hull, 1893-4. Victorian gothic, broadly Early English in style. MATERIALS: red brick with Hoptonwood stone dressings, Welsh slate roofs with terracotta cresting. PLAN: the church is orientated with its chancel (the ritual east end) to the south, and its entrance front to the north. The presbytery is adjoined to the east, connected by a shared, enclosed porch. The church has a nave with side aisles, the chancel also being flanked by side chapels. The later church hall attached to the west of the church is not of special interest.

EXTERIOR: architectural elaboration is focused on the road frontage to the north, the ecclesiastical west end. On this elevation, the nave is supported by angle buttresses which rise above the eaves as stone pinnacles, the gable being raised and stone coped, topped by a stone cross finial. Between the buttresses there is the main entrance with its moulded brick, two-centred arch with a stone trefoil arch within and enclosed by a stone hoodmould with label stops. This is flanked by ground floor, two-light windows with geometric tracery and similar stone hoodmoulds. Above there is a tall, two-light window which is headed by a cusped circle in the tracery, this is flanked by trefoil headed lancets, these three windows each being flanked by engaged columns with leaf capitals. Flanking the central window are statues of Our Lady and St Peter, both protected by stone, gable-roofed canopies. The side aisles have trefoil headed lancets with hoodmoulds, the aisle to the left (east) being heightened to accommodate the organ chamber. Beyond to the east and linking with the presbytery there is a porch which a room above. This porch has a double, part-glazed door set beneath a stone Carnarvon arch with a shallow, two-centred brick relieving arch above which frames a stone relief carving of a head framed by foliage. Remaining elevations of the church are simply detailed, windows to both clerestory and aisles being plain lancets with stone cills but no other dressings. The chancel, the roof of which is continuous with that of the nave, has a canted end lit by three two-light windows set at clerestory level. The church hall attached to the west side of the church dates from the 1960s and is not included in the listing.

INTERIOR: the nave is of five bays, the northernmost occupied by a choir and organ gallery. The arcades have octagonal piers, moulded capitals and pointed arches with two orders of hollow mouldings set below hoodmoulds. The windows have hoodmoulds with label stops and are glazed with square and diamond quarries of clear and pink glass. The roof is canted and boarded, the arch trusses being carried down the clerestory walls to be supported by corbels. The chancel is separated from the nave by a high chancel arch supported by triple columnettes rising from foliate corbels. The main chancel windows have memorial stained glass depicting saints. The marble high altar incorporating a tabernacle and canted reredos originally came from the Roman Catholic church of St Patrick, Middlesbrough. The windows of the side aisles are treated the same as those of the clerestory except five have been reglazed with figurative stained glass as memorials. The aisle walls carry reliefs set in quatrefoils forming the Stations of the Cross. The west side aisle has an inserted set of folding doors* giving access through to the attached church hall*, these doors and the hall are not of special interest. The side chapels are vaulted and lit by further stained glass windows. The eastern chapel has a stone and marble altar and reredos incorporating a statue of Christ the Sacred Heart.

PRESBYTERY: the exterior appears as a typical two storey two bay late Victorian house with large rectangular projecting double height bay window. The feature that sets the house apart and identifies it as the church’s presbytery is the entrance which features a highly ornate gothic surround imitating an embattled, gabled porch. The house has modern replacement windows* and extension to the rear*, these alterations not being of special interest, but retains its original chimneys and the terracotta cresting and finials to the hipped roof. The interior retains an encaustic tiled hall, and much original joinery included a closed string staircase. Fireplaces* are later replacements which are not of special interest.

* Pursuant to s.1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.

Sources

Other: “Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough: An Architectural and Historical Review” Architectural History and Practice Ltd. March 2008

The post Bridlington – Our Lady and St Peter appeared first on Taking Stock.

The church was built in 1905 (foundation stone 16 August) and officially opened in 1907. It is said to have originally been served from Loftus (now from Saltburn). The architect was R. R. Kitching of Middlesbrough. Kitching’s original designs are retained on the file in the diocesan archives. The decoration of the ceiling panels was carried out by a Belgian painter Felix Beryngier and his workmen, probably brought across by the first parish priest, Fr Gryspeert, one of many French and Belgian priests who sought sanctuary in England in the wake of early twentieth century anti-clerical legislation. According to Minskip (Brief History, 1993), the paintings in the sanctuary and on the chancel arch were added later, possibly during the time of Fr Patrick Macken (1916-27).

The church was enlarged slightly in 1979 with the rebuilding of the western porch.

Description

A small structure, built of red brick in stretcher bond with stone dressings and consisting of an aisleless nave, lower sanctuary and a rebuilt western porch which is now as wide as the nave. The roofs of the nave and sanctuary are slated. At the west end is a single-light bellcote, the top of which has been removed. The detailing mainly comprises single-light lancet windows. In the east wall there is a sexfoil circular window. The rectangular windows in the porch are reused from the original structure.

The interior is notable for the amount of embellishment. In the nave the five-sided roof is panelled and has bare boards decorated with crosses, fleurs-de-lys and SA (for St Anthony). The chancel is much richer and has grey figures set against a gold background. In the centre of the side walls are angels bearing scrolls with the Beatitudes with figures of apostles and saints on either side of them. On the east wall, surrounding the east window are angels playing musical instruments and round the frame of the window a text of the Sanctus. The panelled, boarded ceiling is painted with the IHS monogram and floriated cross motifs in roundels.

The altar is wooden and its frontal has four columns and has a carved panel of the Agnus Dei. In the wooden reredos are depictions of the Adoration (left) and Last Supper (right) with a canopy in the centre over a Crucifixion scene. The bench seating has somewhat ungainly ends with fleur-de-lys terminals.

The post Brotton – St Anthony of Padua appeared first on Taking Stock.

Mass in Cottingham was first said at Cherry Garth, home of the Hildyard family, on 17 December 1917. Later the conservatory at Cherry Garth was converted into a chapel. In 1928 the site for the present church in Carrington Avenue was purchased for £440. The new church was opened by Bishop Shine in April the following year. Cottingham became a parish in 1934.

Description

A much altered church, originally with the altar facing north, a brick rectangular building of nave and sanctuary with a stepped parapet at either end. To this church a porch and upper gallery were added in 1954 and perhaps also at this time a new sanctuary was added. Probably at a slightly later date the building was coated with a rough troweled on render. The later sanctuary, however, remains in brick. The roofs are clad with clay tile and profiled metal sheeting. In 1982 a large brick extension was built out to the west, creating a square space, and the altar moved to the east wall, the old sanctuary becoming a large side chapel. Finally, in 2004 community rooms were built out to the west again, around a partly enclosed courtyard. The exterior of the church is dominated by the flat-roofed porch with a full-height slot window, interrupted by a lead band linking a small porch and the west extension, all work of 1982. An external bell hangs at the southwest corner on a piece of wall carried up above the eaves. The old east wall has large three-light rectangular windows with wooden frames.

The interior is more harmonious than the exterior, though clearly betraying its organic growth. The old nave has a canted ceiling with boxed-in trusses. The present sanctuary is defined simply by being set on a raised platform. The upper part of the old wall removed for the extension remains as a down stand supported on two columns and the extended nave seems rather low in comparison to the main space. A broad round arch in brick separates the nave from the former sanctuary, now a side chapel, with a large crucifix on the north wall. Octagonal font with Gothic tracery. Most of the furnishings and fittings date from 1982 and later and are of no particular significance. Stained glass in the east windows to reduce the glare behind the celebrant in the re-oriented church.

The post Cottingham – Holy Cross appeared first on Taking Stock.

The Crathorne family maintained the Catholic faith after the Reformation and, no doubt, Mass was held in the manor house. It is sometimes said (e.g. in the list description) that a (or this) chapel was built in 1777 but this is challenged in Peter Markey’s Brief History (c.1977). He cites a document of 1816 stating that the then chapel was ‘formerly a Cowhouse’ but there seems no firm evidence for the 1777 dating and this is probably a self-perpetuating tradition. Markey cites documents that indicate the chapel was complete by the end of 1821 and suggests it was probably the result of efforts by the ‘resident Missioner’, Fr George Corless, using funds from a donation by Ralph Crathorne in 1742 to endow the Crathorne mission. The chapel is attached to the former priest’s house, which dates from the eighteenth century (now in separate ownership). After much neglect the chapel was restored from the mid-1960s.

Description

The list description (below) is sparse but lists the essential features. The following additional points/corrections are worth noting:

• There is one broad west gallery, not ‘galleries’.
• The porch, following Markey (p.7) seems to be post-war, not ‘C19’.
• The decorative treatment of the east end is quite notable: triple hanging arches at the nave/sanctuary junction; the pair of concave sided canopies over niches either side of the altar; and the decorative treatment of the reredos.

List description

II*

Roman Catholic 1777 built for the Crathorne family, Roman Catholics and former lords of the manor. Local handmade light red brick, English garden wall bond. Welsh slate roof with stone gable coping, bracketed eaves. One tall storey, three windows, Tudor arched and roll-moulded, with interlaced glazing bars and cill band. C19 south-west porch in similar style. Gothick interior with galleries and box pews.

*Entry amended by AHP 18.03.2023*

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In the early 1880s there were about a hundred Catholics in Great Driffield. Mass was first said in a private house and subsequently in the Corn Exchange. Bishop Lacy visited the town in 1883, a visit which generated interest in building a church, an ambition realised three years later. The church was paid for by Lady Herries of Everingham Hall.

Description

Norman-style church, built of bright red brick with terracotta dressings (yellow brick dressings to the presbytery), with clay tile roofs. The church comprises a gabled nave with a broadening or transept like projections and a narrower apsed sanctuary towards the road. Tall gabled bellcote on the west gable. Simple round-headed windows throughout. At the west end, two much taller windows, with a smaller one in the gable between. Continuous sill band and impost band linking the windows. The northwest porch projects only enough to give the entrance a stepped surround of three orders. Chevron, nailhead and other Norman-type decoration.

The interior surprises with its two great Norman-style arches of great breadth. The effect is of a crossing but there is no tower and only rather insignificant transept-like projections (deeper on the north side). The arches have three orders of columns with trumpet-like capitals, the arches with chevron, ballflower and billet moulding. Similar decoration around the window heads throughout, all done in yellow terracotta. Continuous billet frieze below the windows. The interior brickwork is painted, cream in the nave and a rather lurid turquoise in the sanctuary. Open altar on Norman-style arcades to three sides. This has been brought forward from the low stone wall behind. Communion rail, again designed as a Norman arcade, set between the arch from the nave to the ‘crossing’. Plain but substantial roof with scissor-bracing to the nave and with stop chamfer detailing to the sanctuary tie beam and diagonal beams. The church is largely carpeted over wooden floors. Plain open-backed pine pews. Large framed painted canvas of the Virgin and Child hanging on the west wall, probably a copy of a sixteenth century Italian painting. Stations of the Cross, round-arched wooden framed painted panels.

List description (the church was listed in 2015, following Taking Stock)

II

Summary: A small Roman Catholic church by Edward Simpson built in 1886 in Romanesque style utilising brick and terracotta. The presbytery is not included in the listing.

Reasons for Designation: The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady and St Edward, 1886 by Edward Simpson, is listed Grade II for the following reasons: * Architectural interest: as a small Romanesque style church with an impressive interior; its bold use of terracotta ornamentation and the wide chancel arch being particularly notable features; * Historic interest: the relatively modest exterior of the church could be interpreted as an illustration of the continuing sensitivity of Roman Catholics in small rural market towns in the 1880s, avoiding overt outward display after centuries of persecution.

History: The church of Our Lady and St Edward was constructed following a visit to Driffield by Bishop Lacy in 1883. At that time, worship for the 100 or so Catholics in the area was conducted in the Corn Exchange. The church was built to the design of Edward Simpson in 1886 and paid for by Lady Herries of Everingham Hall near Market Weighton. The presbytery, which forms a southern extension to the church, was added sometime between the survey dates of the 1910 and 1927 Ordnance Survey maps. The presbytery is not included in the listing. The relative modesty of the exterior of the church, its lack of a tower and general low height may all have been a result of limited funds. However the church is on a minor road, set well back from the street frontage with its most impressive external architectural elaboration (its entrances) being to the rear. This suggests a deliberate design approach to avoid overt public display, perhaps indicating continued sensitivity, decades after Catholic emancipation, in this small rural market town.

Details: Roman Catholic Church, 1886, by Edward Simpson. Romanesque style. MATERIALS: red brick mainly laid to English Garden Wall bond with yellow terracotta dressings, and clay tile roof. PLAN: Apse; chancel with shallow projection to the north forming a small side chapel; aisle-less nave. Projecting from the nave is a shallow north porch and a vestry linking to the presbytery to the south, the presbytery being excluded from the listing.

EXTERIOR: relatively modest. Elevations are divided with moulded red brick string courses at plinth, just below window sill and impost levels. Windows are lancets with simply moulded jambs and more ornate Romanesque round-arches in yellow terracotta. The glazing is also ornamental with each window featuring leading in blocks of chevrons alternating with square lattice. The roof is continuous over the nave and chancel, extending as a cat-slide over the small side chapel. Gables are stone coped: a gabled bellcote rises at the west end and a stone cross forms a final to the east end. A tall boiler chimney rises from the intersection between the roofs of the vestry and nave. The nave is of five bays with the north porch at the western end. This is simply gabled but has a Romanesque doorway of three orders with the yellow terracotta arch rings featuring dog tooth, chevron, and nail head ornamentation. The planked double doors are hung on ornate strap hinges. The west end has three lancet windows, the central being shorter but set higher. The single bay chancel projects slightly to the north, forming a side chapel, and has triple lancets to both north and south elevations. The apse, which is built in header bond and is smoothly rounded, has five evenly spaced lancets. The vestry extends as a low cross wing from the eastern two bays of the south nave wall. It is lit by two lancets on the east side which break the eaves line and are accommodated by a plain verged gable. The west elevation has a Romanesque doorway.

INTERIOR: The chancel and sanctuary arches are wide, each being supported by three orders of stone columns, the three arch rings being decorated with seven bands of Romanesque ornamentation formed with yellow terracotta including chevrons, nail heads, dog-toothing, billets and diaper patterns. Window and doorway reveals are deep, their round-arched heads also featuring a selection of yellow terracotta ornamentation: those to the nave showing variation between windows and those in the apse being identically detailed. Just below the window reveals there is a billet string course and a moulded string course links the windows at impost level. The roof structure is exposed, with arched braced principal trusses supported by shaped corbels, the common rafters being scissor-braced. The semicircular apse roof has an arch-braced kingpost. There is no division between the chancel and the small side chapel to the north. The main entrance to the church has a modern, inner porch: this is not of special interest. One of the two doorways to the vestry now forms the entrance to a confessional.

FITTINGS: stone high altar with arcaded front. A low stone arcade also forms an altar rail beneath the chancel arch. The small side chapel has no fixtures. The nave contains simple oak open-backed bench pews with kneelers. Affixed to the nave walls are the Stations of the Cross, being painted panels in round arched wooden frames. To the west wall there is a large framed painted canvas of the Virgin and Child, thought to be a copy of a C16 Italian painting.

STAINED GLASS: the nave windows contain blue and purple coloured glass accentuating the arrangement of chevron and square lattice leading. The only pictorial stained glass in the church is in the three central windows of the apse. The right hand lancet contains an image of the Virgin and Child, the left hand one an image of St Edward, in memory of Lord and Lady Herries, founder of the church. The centre lancet showing Christ’s crucifixion is in memory of Edith Mary Forster. These windows are dated between 1893 and 1919.

Sources

Books and journals: Pevsner, N, Neave, D, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire – York and the East Riding, (1995), 441

Other: “Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough: An Architectural and Historical Review” Architectural History and Practice Ltd. March 2008

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