Complex of Chapels at the College of St Cuthbert, Ushaw

The Chapel of St Cuthbert

The Chapel of St Cuthbert is a Roman Catholic diocesan seminary chapel at the College of St Cuthbert, Ushaw. Built between 1882 and 1885 to designs by Dunn & Hansom, it incorporates significant elements from an earlier chapel of 1844–1847 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin that stood on the same site, including the north stair, choir screen, windows, and stained glass. In 1925–1928, S. P. Powell added two west chapels.

The chapel is built of coursed squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth and dressings, and is roofed with graduated Lakeland slate beneath stone gable copings. The plan comprises a long choir separated by a screen from a west antechapel and transepts. The screen itself contains chapels dedicated to St Bede and St Gregory the Great. A Lady Chapel extends east from the south transept. On the north side is a cloister with an organ chamber and bell turret. The sanctuary has a north sacristy. The architectural style is Decorated Gothic.

Exterior

The west front features double boarded doors within a triple-shafted surround set in a gabled porch with diagonal buttresses beneath kneelers with gablets. A large west gable rises above, containing a seven-light window flanked by buttresses and niches, with a crocketed niche at the gable peak. The porch and flanking chapels have a stepped parapet on a stepped string; the chapels have four-light windows. The north and south transept gables and the north organ-chamber gable follow a similar design but are slightly lower in height.

Six-light choir windows are set in bays defined by large buttresses with offsets, double plinths, and gablets. The high apse consists of seven bays marked by pinnacled buttresses, with transomed three-light windows beneath trefoils. Each gable peak has stone finials, with the easternmost finial depicting an angel. A higher pinnacled buttress separates the choir from the apse. A band below the apse sills carries Latin verses dedicating Solomon's Temple. Head-stopped dripmoulds, a carved corbel table, and roll-moulded copings adorn the exterior. The roofs are steeply pitched. Stone carving is by A. B. Wall of Cheltenham.

On the north side stands a stone spire atop an octagonal stair turret, alongside a cloister with two-light windows fitted with wrought-iron grilles designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

Interior

The interior is finished in painted plaster with ashlar dressings, some of which are also painted. The roof is arch-braced and panelled with stencil decoration, now surviving only in the apse and antechapel. Slender pilasters stand between wall arches, which have angel-stopped dripmoulds.

Throughout the chapel is high-quality ornament. In 1894, Bentley painted the decoration of the choir screen and the chapels of Sts Bede and Gregory within it. He also altered and decorated the Lady Chapel between 1894 and 1899, adding a free-standing wall arcade and an enriched cornice.

The high altar, dating to 1890, is of Caen stone. Behind it stands a crocketed reredos of painted wood with painted panels and rich carving by P. P. Pugin from 1891. Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's original high altar and credence niche are now located in the south transept (Sacred Heart Chapel). The altar in the Lady Chapel is also by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

The altar of St Bede, designed by Bentley, is of marble and features paintings of the life of St Bede on the reredos and on the pine and mahogany frontal. The altar of St Gregory is by P. P. Pugin, with paintings by Elphege Pippet. Within the screen niches are a wooden statue of the Sacred Heart and a marble statue of Our Lady by Karl Hoffmann.

The high choir stalls have a coved crested frieze, with some mid-19th-century poppyheads and misericords. Other works include a white alabaster statue of Our Lady of Help from 1855 by Karl Hoffmann, commissioned by Monsignor Newsham (positioned on the south side of the sanctuary), and a south transept screen by Basil Champneys commemorating Henry, son of Coventry Patmore, who died in 1883.

On the north wall of the antechapel hangs a triptych with a statue of St Cuthbert by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, dated 1848. The sanctuary lamp, lectern (1847), and large Paschal candlestick (the latter two exhibited at the 1851 exhibition) are all by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin.

The stained glass from the earlier chapel by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Hardman was reused. The former west window of 1846–1847 became the east window, and the former east window (also 1846–1847) became the west window. Other windows, now in the antechapel, were enlarged as necessary by Edward Frampton, who also designed the second window from the east on the north side of the sanctuary. The nave windows were originally filled with patterned glass by Atkinson of Newcastle, some of which survives on the north side, though the first window on that side, from 1910, is by Kempe & Co. (probably designed by Geoffrey Webb). The first window on the south side is by Frampton; the remainder are by Hardman. Above the stalls at the western end on the north side hangs a painting of St Cuthbert in a richly carved and gilded frame.

The western chapels, designed by S. P. Powell, are fan-vaulted and elaborately decorated, with paintings by Elphege Pippet.

North Cloister

The north cloister is entered from the east through an original Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin doorway with paired doors beneath a six-foil light within a two-centred-arched surround, surmounted by a statue of the Virgin and Child. The glass in the west window is by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and Hardman. At the west end of the cloister, an arch-supported stone stair leads to the tribune of the choir screen, also designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. The floor tiles and similarly patterned cast-iron heating vents date from the same period. A triptych of the Northern English Martyrs from 1937 is by Geoffrey Webb.

Chapel of St Michael (Mortuary Chapel)

The Chapel of St Michael, also known as the Mortuary Chapel, was built in 1858–1859 by Edward Welby Pugin for M. Gibson of Leamington to receive the body of his son. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; the roof is not visible.

A short flight of stone steps leads down from the north side of the north cloister of the Chapel of St Cuthbert to this four-bay chapel, which is sunk below ground level.

Exterior

The north front has Decorated tracery in two-light windows beneath dripmoulds. The bays are defined by flying buttresses, with diagonal buttresses at the corner with the east front. The east front is blank save for a stone shield in an arched recess. A string course runs at buttress-top level beneath a steeply coped parapet.

Interior

The interior is finished in ashlar with green marble shafts. An ashlar vault rises above a ceramic-tiled floor. Richly carved capitals atop wall shafts, linked by a marble string at plinth level, support a many-ribbed vault with much moulding and elaborate bosses. Similar shafts support the altar.

High-relief carving of Souls in Purgatory decorates the altar, while the Last Judgement appears on the reredos. The carving is of very high quality, and the theme continues throughout the carved detail on the vaults and walls, including stone benches at the west end flanking the door, which has a similarly carved tympanum.

The floor is laid with delicately coloured tiles. Two grave slabs in the centre of the floor bear simple brass initials and dates: M.G. 1856 (Very Rev. Michael Gibson) and C.N. 1863 (Right Rev. Monsignor Newsham). Memorial brasses at the west end above the benches carry inscriptions to these men.

Stations of the Cross Cloister with Chapel of St Charles Borromeo and Holy Family Oratory Chapel

The Stations of the Cross Cloister with the Chapel of St Charles Borromeo on the west and the Holy Family Oratory Chapel on the east was built in 1852–1853 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, with the exception of the Chapel of St Charles, built in 1857–1859 by Edward Welby Pugin.

These structures are built of thin courses of squared sandstone with an ashlar plinth and dressings. The roofs are of graduated Lakeland slate with crested ridge tiles and lead flashings on the cloister and oratory.

The cloister is a corridor connecting the Chapel of St Cuthbert at the south with the Chapel of St Joseph at the north. It is a single-storey, four-bay structure, with the slightly higher Chapel of St Charles on the west and the high oratory opposite on the east. The style is Gothic.

Exterior

The cloister has a blocked cusped door in the north bay on the west front. Paired cusped lights fitted with wrought-iron grilles are set beneath dripmoulds throughout. The roof is steeply pitched with small gabled roof lights.

The Chapel of St Charles has Decorated tracery in four joined two-light windows with low two-centred heads beneath a dripstring. Diagonal buttresses mark the corners. The roof is steeply pitched and hipped, with a north gabled roof light.

The oratory is octagonal with short corners. It is blank except for two-light, two-centred-arched north and south windows beneath dripmoulds, with Decorated tracery. The high roof has four small gabled roof lights and a lead spike finial. Bands of fishscale and diamond-pattern slates decorate the roof.

Interior: Cloister

The cloister has blind ashlar arcading added in 1935, which contains limewood Stations of the Cross by Dorigo of the Art and Book Company. The roof is keeled and panelled.

Interior: Chapel of St Charles

The Chapel of St Charles is finished in ashlar, with an ornate Caen stone screen facing the cloister. A groined ribbed vault rises above naturalistic foliage capitals on the shafts. The original tiled floor survives in delicate colours and patterns. Stone carving is by Lane and Lewis of Birmingham.

The richly carved altar has green marble shafts and panels inscribed with the word "HUMILITAS" in each. The canopied reredos features a high-relief figure of St Charles and scenes from his life. Similar scenes appear in glass on the west by Edward Frampton. The south windows depict Sts Walburga, Richard, Winebald, and Willibald by Hardman.

Interior: Oratory Chapel

The Oratory Chapel has an elaborately painted high-domed panelled roof with a pendant, designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. The Minton tiled floor and altar are also by him. Gothic cases formerly held relics of saints, a gift from 1860. A large painting on the reredos depicts the Adoration of the Magi by Franz von Rohden.