Church of St Mary Magdalen

Church of St Mary Magdalen

A Roman Catholic church built between 1906 and 1907 to the designs of Thomas Axtell, constructed in Romanesque style. The building is constructed from cast and moulded concrete blocks, rock-faced externally, with Welsh slate roofs.

The church is prominently sited on elevated ground and takes the form of a Romanesque basilica with its liturgical orientation running north to south. The plan comprises an aisled continuous nave and sanctuary with apses to both the nave and aisles, an aisled west porch, and a south-east sacristy. The east end features Lombardic friezes to the gable, beneath which the tall sanctuary apse rises with five windows arranged in panelled bays and topped by a half-conical roof. The lower aisle apses follow a similar form, each containing three windows, with Lombardic friezes to the gable verges. The north and south walls are divided into six bays by pilaster strips, each bay containing pairs of round-headed windows with sloping sills, drip moulds, prominent kneelers, and pitched slate roofs to the pent-roof aisles, with additional windows to the clerestories above.

The west end features a tall aisled porch, slightly lower in height than the nave, with a high centrally placed door reached by steps from either side. The door surround has triple roll-moulding beneath a chamfered arch supported on pilasters with moulded imposts and a drip string. Above the door sits a large rose window in a moulded surround, with statues on brackets in round-headed niches flanking the door arch and single small windows below, paired in each porch aisle. The porch and aisle gables also carry Lombardic friezes. The roof features a stone cross finial to the nave gables. The south-east sacristy has a pitched roof and gabled west end with a three-light mullioned window and small rectangular porch.

The interior is lofty and light, with concrete walls recently painted white. A high chancel arch with hood mould leads to the sanctuary apse, which is panelled to its lower parts. The reredos comprises a central easel painting of Our Lady flanked by three inset paintings of the Apostles. The five round-headed lights of the east window contain stained glass beneath a ribbed dome ceiling. The high altar, installed in 1921 as a First World War memorial, features simple stone supports with marble detailing to their front. The aisle apses serve as north and south chapels; the south chapel incorporates a Gothic timber altar piece with a central painted panel of Our Lady, flanked by and incorporating stained glass apse windows at either end. At the east end of the south aisle wall are three round-headed doorways to the sacristy building, united by a continuous hoodmould and each fitted with original six-panel doors. The nave floor is boarded with carpet to the aisles. Benches to the nave and aisles have square ends and roll mouldings. The round-arched arcades span six bays, supported on cylindrical columns with crocket capitals, with paired clerestory windows above each arch. Windows and arches throughout feature continuous plaster hood moulds with sill bands. The aisle windows are similarly treated, mostly containing simple coloured glass motifs on clear ground. The roof is a tie-beam and crown post structure carried on moulded corbels with arch braces to the collars. At the west end, a high arch frames a west choir gallery that has been extended forwards into the west nave bay, accessed via a timber staircase with stick balusters and carved newel posts through an arch at the west end of the south aisle.