Church Of Our Lady Immaculate And Saint Cuthbert

The Church of Our Lady Immaculate and Saint Cuthbert is a Roman Catholic parish church, dating from 1853 with a design by Edward Welby Pugin. The tower was completed in 1897. The church is constructed of irregular courses of squared sandstone, with hammer-dressed sandstone in the upper stages of the tower. Ashlar dressings are present, and the roofs are covered with slate-coloured asbestos tiles.

The church is aligned south-west/north-east and comprises an aisled nave, a ritual north porch, a south-west tower, a chancel with a north Lady chapel, and a south vestry linked to the presbytery. It is built in the Decorated style, with the tower exhibiting Tudor Gothic detailing.

The steeply-gabled north porch has a double boarded door set within a moulded arch with an elongated two-centred head. Steps lead to a two-centred-arched west door, flanked by filleted shafts with vine-carved capitals under a drip-mould with mitred head-stops. A cusped niche above the west door contains a statue of Our Lady. Decorated tracery is found in the two-light aisle windows, the four-light west window, and the large five-light east window. Spherical-triangular clerestory windows have three cusped lights.

The tall, three-stage tower has a two-light west window and a cusped lancet at the top of the first stage. A boarded door is located on the south side. The upper stages of the tower are offset, featuring pinnacled clasping buttresses, a clock under a drip-mould, and tall traceried belfry openings. The pinnacled parapet has corner blind-traceried battlements set on flower-bracketed friezes with corner gargoyles. The steeply-pitched roofs of the nave, chancel, and Lady chapel are topped with stone cross finials.

The interior features painted plaster above a painted boarded dado, with ashlar chancel dressings. A painted scissor-truss roof and a painted panelled keeled chancel roof are also present. Five-bay arcades, with the west bays filled with screens and arched openings boxed in to form a south porch and north children's room, have moulded two-centred arches on quatrefoil columns with varied foliage capitals. A high, shafted chancel arch features a flower-stopped drip-mould. Other arches to the chancel and doors are either depressed two-centred or elongated two-centred. The chancel includes an angle-bracketed ashlar balcony on the south side. A west screen and gallery feature Gothic tracery with a crested balustrade.

The high altar, originally designed by J.F. Bentley and dating from 1864, is now in three parts: the tabernacle in the Lady chapel, the altar under the chancel arch, and the reredos in its original location. These elements are crafted from alabaster with enamel and gold inlay, embellished with painted panels, and are executed in the Gothic style. An east brass foundation plate is dated 1853. The east window’s glass is by Hardman, with other glass including pieces by Atkinson Bros., Newcastle, commemorating the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in the parish in 1862.