Church Of The Sacred Heart

The Church of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic church constructed between 1931 and 1932, designed by J. Coomans of Ypres and Kitching & Co. of Middlesbrough. It is built of mottled buff brick with Portland stone dressings, and has Lakeland slate roofs, with the tower roofs re-clad in copper in 1966. The church exhibits a Romanesque style and features north-west and south-west towers flanking a clerestoried nave with aisles. A south-west porch, chapels, baptistry, confessionals, and a lower chancel are also present.

The towers are six stages high, featuring continuous deep chamfered plinths, and tall trefoil-headed recesses holding an oculus, a round-headed window, and a slit light in the lower three stages. A blind, three-bay triangular-headed arcade is in the fourth stage, followed by three-bay round-arcaded bell openings with louvres and hoodmoulds in the two uppermost stages. The pyramidal roofs have cross finials and weather vanes. The west end of the nave has carved, panelled, and part-glazed double doors within a projecting gabled doorcase. A mosaic depicting Christ is set into the tympanum above the doors, along with a cross finial. Flanking oculus and round-headed windows and a central rose window with cusped plate tracery are all situated within a round-headed recess. A louvred vent is in the gable, and shaped corbelled verge contains moulded copings and a cross finial.

A gabled porch adjoins the south-west tower, with a panelled door and a mosaic roundel in its tympanum. The nave and aisles are three bays, with pilaster strips defining the aisles and gabled buttresses to the clerestory. Paired round-headed windows are incorporated. An octagonal baptistry, with oculi and a pyramidal roof, adjoins the west end bay of the north aisle. Low, flat-roofed confessionals project from the middle bay and from extruded, hip-roofed chapels, accompanied by oculi and round-headed windows, flanking the transepts. The transepts have four stepped round-headed windows, pilaster strips flanking the bays, and blind triangular-headed clerestory arcades. The half-duodecagonal, pyramidal-roofed chancel mirrors the pattern with similar windows, a blind clerestory arcade, and a bronze cross finial. Eaves are characterized by stepped brick corbelling and plain soffits.

The interior features plastered walls with three-bay round arcades, similar transverse arches in the lateral vaulted aisles and nave, and similar transept and chancel arches. A saucer-domed ceiling defines the crossing, while the chancel has a half-domed ceiling. A west organ gallery contains an arcaded balustraded front, above a glazed wood screen installed in 1965. Extensive mosaics, created between 1961 and 1967 by Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd. of Manchester, adorn the walls and chancel dome, depicting saints, scenes from the life of Christ, stations of the cross, the Resurrection, and the Transfiguration. Marble dado panelling features in the chancel. The church contains good stained glass by Henry Clarke of Dublin, an elaborate marble altar table from 1954, and a seven-bay marble reredos. One-story offices adjoin the north side of the chancel.