Roman Catholic Church Of St Joseph

Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph

A Roman Catholic church built between 1898 and 1902, designed by Charles Walker. The building is constructed in Gothic Revival style using locally sourced coursed rusticated white sandstone with ashlar dressings. The pillars and shafting are in Galloway red sandstone, and the roof is of pitch pine.

The plan consists of a nave and apsidal chancel under a single slate roof, with apsidal side chapels and projecting baptistery and porch on the north and south sides at the west end.

The chancel is a five-sided apse with a hipped roof and eaves cornice, lit by five lancet windows set within full height shallow segmental pointed arches. A foundation stone recording the date 1899 is set in the east wall of the chancel. The side chapels are five-sided apses under conical roofs, each lit by three lancet windows. The transepts are gabled with angled buttresses and single three-light windows with geometric tracery and sill bands; the hood moulds feature carved representations of heads as stops. The south transept is surmounted by a carved cross. The nave comprises six bays with an eaves cornice. The west bay contains paired multifoil windows, while the other bays have single lancet windows with geometrical tracery and drip mouldings between buttresses.

The main entrance is on the south front through a gabled porch in the west bay of the nave. A multiple chamfered pointed arch with hood mould and carved stops springs from plain splayed reveals and contains paired doors with carved rectilinear tracery and a fanlight above. The entrance is flanked to the right by a pointed arch window comprising three trefoil-headed lights, the hood mould continued around the main door. The south porch has continuous hood and drip moulds with carved heads as stops and blind arcade on the left return. The west end of the nave contains an elaborate wheel window with radiating tracery set within a shallow pointed arch on two pillars of red sandstone and flanked by buttresses with blind arcading below. It is surmounted by a carved cross.

Internally, the pentagonal chancel has a wooden vaulted ceiling with a pointed Gothic arch carried on red sandstone pillars. Three of the five lancet windows contain stained glass by the Munich firm Mayer and Co., depicting the Sacred Heart, St. Thomas à Beckett, and St. George and the Dragon. The reredos depicts The Last Supper and Thomas Meeting Jesus, flanked by matching oak panelling with applied Gothic tracery. The centrally placed altar bears the tabernacle with a Crucifix above.

The Sacred Heart Chapel to the left has three stained glass lancet windows and serves as a memorial to the fallen of the First World War, featuring an altar, reredos and matching oak panelling throughout; a brass tablet on the left wall records the names of the fallen. The Lady Chapel to the right contains three stained glass lancet windows and features an altar with reredos containing a carved wooden Madonna and matching panelling.

The three-light windows in the north and south transepts contain stained glass by Mayer and Co. depicting a Crucifixion scene and Christ in glory surrounded by the Saints. The south transept contains the original organ, repositioned in 1908. The plain nave has a terrazzo floor and bears the Stations of the Cross along both walls. Double pointed arches at the east end, supported centrally on a red sandstone pillar, carry the nave wall across the transepts. The pews are largely open-backed benches with ornate bench fronts surmounted by carved wooden fleur-de-lys. The pitch pine vaulted roof is supported on a decorative timber blind arcade and is braced with metal ties across the nave.

An ornately carved wooden west gallery features panels of Gothic tracery separated by plain stiles with a moulded sill below. The west window is of wheel form with radiating tracery; at its centre is a depiction of the Crucifixion with Our Lady and St. John, below which are two three-light windows. Opposing openings at the west end of the nave lead into the baptistery and south porch. The baptistery is shielded by an ornately carved screen designed by M. Zens of Ghent, featuring white marble statues of St. Theresa and St. Joseph to the front. The west porch is entered through paired doors with rectilinear applied tracery, with a Holy Water stoup set into the wall to the right of the doors.

In order to fulfil the needs of the expanding Catholic population of Stanley, land was acquired in 1892 for construction of a presbytery and church adjacent to the school of 1873. The presbytery was completed in 1893, and the foundation stone for the church was laid in 1899. St. Joseph's Church, accommodating 650 people, was completed in 1902 at a cost of £6,000 and was consecrated in 1928.

The stained glass was mostly provided by Mayer and Co. of Munich, a firm working on an international scale at this time and which had achieved the status of a Pontifical Institute of Christian Art by Pope Leo XIII in 1892. Soon after completion, large cracks were noted in the fabric of the church, believed to be caused by subsidence resulting from underground mine workings. In 1911, restoration work was carried out to the nave and presbytery, but the instability in the church fabric remained. After the First World War, plans to erect a tower as a memorial to the fallen were shelved in favour of an altar inserted into the Sacred Heart Chapel. In 1922, a settlement of £2,300 was agreed regarding damage caused by subsidence, allowing the repair of the north transept window, several nave windows, and the replacement of parts of the transept walls. Following the Second Vatican Council, minor changes to the church interior were made to accommodate the Roman Catholic New Liturgy, including installation of a moveable altar facing the congregation, removal of altar rails, side screens, and the pulpit.