Roman Catholic church of St Mary and St Romuald

Roman Catholic church of St Mary and St Romuald, built 1859–60 by the architectural firm Hadfield and Goldie, thought to be designed by Goldie. The church is built in the High Victorian Gothic style.

The building is constructed of red brick with buff sandstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof with iron crest and ornamental tiles. The church is oriented north-south with liturgical directions following this axis. The plan comprises a three-sided chancel, an aisleless nave with a north porch, a large tiered bellcote rising behind the porch, and a vestry and side chapel at the south-east corner.

The church sits at the south end of Yarm High Street, where it forms a visual closure to the town. The buff sandstone dressings are used polychromatically, particularly at the heads of the nave windows and the arch to the porch, and form bands across all elevations. The chancel is polygonal, with each side pierced by triple lancets set within recessed square panels topped with dentils. The nave is separated from the chancel by a buttress and comprises four bays. The plinth is of brick with stone coping. The westernmost bay contains the north porch with belfry rising above it. The porch is buttressed and has a large pointed-arched entrance. The belfry rises from a broad base with a recessed pointed arch through a series of offsets to an octagonal cap surmounted by a cross, sitting flush with the north nave wall. The nave windows are flush with the walls and feature pointed arches with two lights and bar tracery. The window heads alternate between sandstone and brick, with sill, impost and eaves bands in stone. A later 20th-century brick buttress supports the west end of the nave. The rear of the nave has a pair of identical windows. A lean-to side chapel is attached with west and east windows similar to those of the nave but with segmental-pointed heads. A lean-to vestry adjoins the chapel, with a tall chimney with stone cap rising above. The west end has thin brick and stone corner buttresses and a large pointed-arched window of five lights with early Decorated tracery.

The interior has plain painted walls with no structural division between the nave and the sanctuary. A panelled seven-sided roof covers the entire space. The windows lighting the sanctuary contain coloured and grisaille glass, each flanked by foliated shafts and linked by a sill band that continues around the sanctuary wall to the left, terminating in a foliated stop. The sanctuary wall to the right has a blind pointed arch and a pair of blind shoulder-arches with a hoodmould terminating in a foliated stop. The ornate reredos with integral stone altar is of Caen stone and is considered to be original, featuring a central tabernacle with painted decoration to the door. To either side are square panels with censing angels. The altar front is inlaid with red and buff tiles. The side chapel has panelled walls to dado level; the rear wall bears a wooden altar front panel inscribed with the HIS monogram, said to come from a former altar in the Friary. Stations of the Cross on the nave walls are a 20th-century addition. The mid-20th-century benches are simple with chamfered-off corners on the eastern faces. The west window contains stained glass to the memory of Thomas Meynell, who died in 1863.

To the front of the church stands a low red brick wall with stone coping set with plain railings. At regular intervals are rectangular pillars with multi-sided stone caps and a pedestrian gate to the north porch. These features contribute to the special interest of the church.