Church Of Our Lady And St Wilfred

BLYTH WATERLOO ROAD NZ 3181 SW (North side) 11/46 Church of Our Lady and St. Wilfrid GV II Catholic Church, 1862 by A.M. Dunn. Rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings; mixed Lakeland and Welsh slate roof. Unaisled, 6 bays with polygonal apse; south-east bell turret, south transept and south-west sacristy. Cloister linking transept with presbytery. Free C14 style. Chamfered plinth, stepped buttresses, hollow-chamfered eaves cornice, with grotesque heads to rainwater pipes. Coped gables with moulded kneelers and finial crosses. West end shows double diagonally-boarded doors in moulded arch with 2 orders of colonnettes, flanked by small lancets; stepped group of three 2-light windows above; hoodmoulds with head stops. North and south walls with trefoiled lancets; porch-like sacristy on south has 2-light window; transept has two 2-light windows with large wheel window above and cusped niche in gable. Lower cloister to east has two 2-light windows. Aspe has 3-light east window, with cusped niche over, in slightly-projecting gable end; 2-light windows to east side. Extruded turret has stair loops and octagonal upper section with trefoil panels and trefoil-headed niches under gabled hoods with richly-carved beast stops; Short tegulated stone spire.

Interior: Unbroken apsidal-ended space, plastered. South transept is vestry with gallery over. Western screen and jettied canted gallery with carving. Lady Chapel with carved stone reredos below gallery on south side. Arcaded apse with figures of saints in trefoiled carved panels with marble shafts between. Canted reredos with central pinnacle in the form of a steeple flanked by crocketed niches with sculptured groups. Pinnacled sides canted forward with figures of saints under canopies at either end. Richly-carved pulpit with figures of saints and group of Christ preaching. Stations of the Cross oil on canvas in Gothic wood panels. Large west window: Adoration of the Lamb, asymmetrical composition of high quality.

The cloister linked the church to buildings on the east, now altered and not of special interest, which originally housed a small community of Benedictine monks.

Listing NGR: NZ3101481411