Survey Data
Reg No
11810006
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
In Use As
Church hall/parish hall
Date
1815 - 1820
Coordinates
267260, 219516
Date Recorded
12/06/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay double-height Catholic church, built 1816, originally on a T-shaped plan comprising three-bay double-height nave with single-bay double-height transepts to north-east and to south-west, single-bay double-height chancel to north-west and single-bay three-stage Italianate entrance tower (1857) on a square plan. Extended, c.1960, comprising single-bay single-storey flat-roofed flanking bay to south-west to accommodate use as hall. Extensively renovated and extended, c.1990, following fire comprising single-bay single-storey flat-roofed flanking bay to north-east. Gable-ended roofs on a T-shaped plan. Replacement artificial slate, c.1990. Concrete ridge tiles. Timber eaves and bargeboards. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Shallow pyramidal roof to tower. Replacement artificial slate, c.1990. Overhanging timber eaves. Flat-roofed to additional flanking bays. Bitumen felt. Timber eaves. Rendered walls to nave and to transepts. Ruled and lined. Unpainted. Rendered quoins to corners. Coursed cut-stone walls to tower. Cut-stone dressings including quoins to corners, stringcourses to each stage and consoled frieze to eaves. Rendered walls to additional flanking bays. Unpainted. Lancet-arch openings to nave remodeled, c.1990, to accommodate square-headed openings. Stone sills. Rendered surrounds. Replacement timber casement windows, c.1990. Round-headed openings to tower in recessed panels to first and to second stages (tripartite arrangement to top stage with stringcourse to spring of arches). Stone sills and yellow brick dressings to upper stages. Openings to second stage now blocked-up. Round-headed door opening. Moulded cut-limestone doorcase. Replacement timber paneled double doors, c.1960, with tongue-and-groove timber paneled overpanel. Square-headed openings to additional flanking bays. Timber fittings, c.1990. Full-height interior to nave remodeled, c.1960, with stage inserted to former chancel having transepts in use as wings. Set back from road in own grounds. Tarmacadam forecourt/carpark to front. Gateway, c.1825, to south-east comprising pair of cut-stone piers with profiled cut-stone capping having cast-iron double gates and rendered flanking plinth walls with cast-iron railings over having finials.
Appraisal
This former Catholic church is a fine and attractive building of considerable social and historic interest as the earliest remaining ecclesiastical centre for the Catholic population of the locality, built shortly before Catholic Emancipation in 1829 – the building continues to serve a community use as a hall-cum-theatre. Unsympathetically extended in the late twentieth century, the additional ranges could easily be removed to restore the original form of the composition. The former church is distinguished by a soaring entrance tower to the south-east, the Italianate style of which is unusual in the region, and which is in contrast with the Gothic appearance of the nave and transepts, suggesting that it was a later addition. The tower is finely detailed, in contrast to the reserved quality of the remainder of the piece, and uses yellow brick and cut-stone dressings to decorative effect – the cut-limestone doorcase is also an attractive feature and is a good example of the quality of stone masonry/craftsmanship practiced in the locality. Extensively renovated in the late twentieth century following a fire, the former church retains little of its original features and materials. The building is attractively set off the line of the road in its own grounds and is announced off the line of Chapel Street by a fine gateway of cut-limestone that is a good example of high quality stone masonry. Well-maintained, the gateway retains early cast-iron gates and railings. The former church is part of a self-contained group of Catholic-related structures, including the two former national schools that frame the entrance to the grounds to south-east (11810005, 57/KD-17-10-05, 57).