Roman Catholic Church of St Bede and attached Presbytery including attached walls and detached wall to south

Roman Catholic Church of St Bede and attached Presbytery

The Church of St Bede is a Roman Catholic church built in 1874–6 to designs by Thomas C Nicholson in the Early English Gothic style. It stands with an attached presbytery of later 19th-century date, designed in Tudor Revival style. Both buildings are Grade II listed.

The church is constructed of dressed stone with a roughly-hewn stone plinth. It has a slate roof and faces south, though it follows conventional liturgical orientation. The plan is longitudinal with an apsidal chancel, an aisled nave, short transepts, and an incomplete northwest bell tower. The presbytery is a two-storey building (plus basement) built of red brick with painted ashlar dressings and slate roof, comprising a rectangular main block with an attached lower range to the east.

The church features a high chamfered plinth and prominent eaves band. Window and door openings have hood moulds with stops and neatly-laid surrounds of dressed stone. The tall chancel terminates in an apse with a pyramidal roof surmounted by an iron cross finial. Seven regularly spaced lancet windows with trefoil tracery light the apse. The pitch-roofed transepts have stepped buttresses and are lit by rose windows above larger lancets, with three stepped lancets to their east walls. A single-storey flat-roofed vestry extends east from the east wall of the north transept, featuring a tall shoulder-arched double entrance (formerly a six-light mullion and transom window) separated from another six-light mullion and transom window by a short buttress, both with relieving arches.

The nave has a pitched roof with stone cross finials to each gable. The north and south aisles have lean-to roofs and bays defined by buttresses with paired lancets. The clerestory also contains short paired lancets. The three-bay west end has a central bay flanked by stepped buttresses with a recessed pointed-arch doorway of two orders, fitted with double wooden doors and reached by stone steps. Above this is a five-light window with geometrical tracery and a sill band. The west end of the south aisle has a three-light window and sill band. The northwest tower has angle buttresses with a single lancet to each of its two lower stages and two cusped lancets to the upper stage; each stage is demarcated by a stone band. The north face of the tower has a large pointed-arched recessed entrance with a single lancet and paired lancets to the upper stages.

The presbytery is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and has tall brick chimney stacks. Window frames throughout are uPVC replacements. Windows on the south elevation have stone mullions set in painted ashlar surrounds; those to the sides and rear have plain rectangular heads with painted ashlar sills and lintels. The south elevation comprises three gabled bays with a narrow central entrance bay featuring a stone Tudor entrance reached by a flight of stone steps and a two-light window above. The right end bay has a four-light window with a three-light window above; attached to the right is a short single-storey range with similar detailing. The left end bay, slightly projecting, has a five-light canted bay window with a three-light window above. An area to the front contains large similarly detailed basement windows. The left return is plainer, with a projecting central bay formed by a double-height canted bay window, flanked by plain bays with a single ground-floor window and a dormer window above. The rear is similarly plain but has a large stair window and several modern extensions.

Interior of the Church

The sanctuary has a panelled timber ceiling with ribs dividing it into sections. Its seven windows depict the Seven Sacraments. The walls below are panelled in timber carved with tracery. The timber reredos of the high altar is richly carved with canopies over four saint statues flanking the central monstrance throne and tabernacle; the lower parts are faced in stone. The re-sited original timber altar is set forward, and a late-19th-century Gothic pulpit and rail with a relief carving of St Bede is located on the sanctuary steps in front of the tall, narrow chancel arch. The pulpit stem is set behind for use as a sanctuary table.

The north transept contains a northeast chapel with a timber altar. The three lancets above contain stained glass (removed from the first chapel) depicting Saints Patrick, Bede and Hilda. The north lancet window has stained glass depicting St Vincent, and the rose is filled with clear glass. The south transept contains the Lady Chapel with a timber altar and reredos. Its three lancets (removed from the first chapel) depict Saints Francis, John and William. The south window has stained glass of St Catherine below a plain glass rose.

The five-bay nave has an arch-braced roof, painted plastered walls, and a mixture of parquet flooring and floorboards. The pointed-arch stone arcades have octagonal pillars, against which are set several statues including a Pieta by Mayer of Munich. Benches are simple open-ended forms. A pair of octagonal stone holy water stoups is set at the nave entrance. The aisles have lean-to timber ceilings and their windows contain a variety of stained glass from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Stations of the Cross are unframed plaster casts.

At the west end is an organ gallery with a tri-lobed balustrade and an organ listed in the National Pipe Organ Register. A narthex below is divided from the nave by plaster partitions. The former baptistery in the northwest corner of the narthex is now partitioned as a small chapel; the south window depicts Saints Thomas More and John Fisher (1982) and the west window depicts the Ascension. The ground floor of the northwest tower forms a porch entered through modern double doors and contains a large First World War memorial recording the names of the Fallen of the parish, set in a marble frame surmounted by a crucifix.

Interior of the Presbytery

The ground floor retains its original plan with a vestibule opening into a large stair hall with three principal rooms off. The vestibule partition has leaded and stained glazing with foliate motifs. Six-panel doors with architraves are present throughout, and there are ornate cornices and ceiling roses. The dining room has panelled reveals and soffits to the bay window and retains a later-19th-century chimney piece. The open-well staircase has ornate mahogany newel posts, balusters and handrail, and is lit by a large stair window with coloured glass motifs and a central pane depicting Jesus the Good Shepherd. The good survival of original features is understood to continue to the first floor. The basement has been converted to a parish centre and extended to the rear; these elements contain inserted modern interiors and are not of special interest.

Subsidiary Features

Stone steps lead to the west end entrance and to the south side of the presbytery. There are revetment walls and walls flanking the stone steps to the entrance. A red-brick wall with double-chamfered stone copings stands in the vicinity. A tall brick wall to the northeast and east side of the presbytery and a low double-chamfered stone base to the west and north sides of the church are of very plain character and are not listed.

The basement of the presbytery and 20th-century rear extensions are excluded from the listing as they are not of special architectural or historic interest.