Church Of The Sacred Heart

MIDDLESBROUGH LINTHORPE ROAD, NZ 41 NE (4918 & 4919) east side. 3/47 Church of The Sacred Heart. G.V. II. Roman Catholic Church, 1931-32 by J. Coomans (Ypres) and Kitching & Co. (Middlesbrough). Mottled buff brick, with Portland stone dressings. Lakeland slate roofs; tower roofs re-clad in copper 1966. North-west and south-west towers flank west end of clerestoried nave with aisles; south-west porch, chapels,baptistry, confessionals and lower chancel. Romanesque style. 6-stage towers have continuous deep chamfered plinths. Tall trefoil-headed recess holding oculus, round-headed window and slit light, in lower 3 stages; blind 3-bay triangular-headed arcade in 4th stage; and 3-bay round-arcaded bell openings with louvres and hoodmoulds in 2 uppermost stages. Shallow pyramidal roofs with cross finials and weather vanes. West end of nave has central carved panelled and part-glazed double doors in slightly-projecting gabled doorcase; nook shafts with waterleaf capitals and bases. Mosaic depicting Christ in tympanum; and cross finial. Flanking occuli and round-headed windows, and central rose window with cusped plate tracery, all within round-headed recess. Round-headed, louvred vent in gable. Shaped-corbelled verge with moulded copings and cross finial. Gabled porch adjoins south-west tower. Panelled door in similar surround with mosaic roundel in tympanum. 3-bay nave and aisles, bays defined by pilaster strips in aisles, and gabled buttresses in clerestorey. Paired round-headed windows. Projecting octagonal baptistry, with oculi and pyramidal roof, adjoins west end bay of north aisle. Low, flat-roofed confessionals project from middle bay and from extruded one-bay hip-roofed chapels, with oculi and round-headed windows, flanking transepts. 4 stepped round-headed windows in 2-bay transepts, with pilaster strips flanking bays and blind triangular-headed clerestorey arcades. Half duodecagonal, pyramidal-roofed chancel with similar windows, blind clerestorey arcade, and bronze cross finial. Eaves generally have stepped brick corbelling and plain soffit. Hipped and gabled roofs. One-storey offices adjoin north side of chancel. INTERIOR plastered with 3-bay round arcades; similar transverse arches in lateral vaulted aisles and nave. Similar transept and chancel arches. Saucer-domed ceiling in crossing and half-domed chancel. West organ gallery with arcaded balustraded front, over glazed wood screen of 1965. Mosaics, 1961-67 by Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd. (Manchester) on walls throughout and in chancel dome, depict saints, scenes from life of Christ, stations of the cross, Resurrection and Transfiguration. Marble dado panelling in chancel. Good stained glass by Henry Clarke (Dublin). Elaborate marble altar table of 1954 and 7-bay marble reredos.

Listing NGR: NZ4916119007