The Church Of Our Lady And St Thomas Of Canterbury

The Church of Our Lady and St Thomas of Canterbury

A parish church built between 1926 and 1928 to the designs of the architect Walter Tapper, with an extension added in 1983 by Buttress Fuller architects. The church was constructed at the bequest of Mrs Angelina Frances Clarke, who specified the dedication and form of decoration. The administration of her bequest was entrusted to the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, who appointed Tapper to prepare the design.

The building is constructed of variegated red brick laid in single Flemish bond with a plastered interior and Roman red tiled roofs, executed in Renaissance revival style. The original design was not fully carried out, resulting in a one-bay nave and aisles with chancel and apse, flanked by a north chapel and south vestries. The form reads as two large blocks flanked by lower accommodation. Windows are iron-framed. The elevations of the chancel feature plain round-headed blind arches with circular lights at the upper level. The west wall of the chancel is gabled above upward curving side walls, and the apse has simple pilasters with a pair of segmental-headed windows flanking it. The north chapel has windows on the east and west similar to those in the apse.

The interior is the chief point of architectural interest. The chancel comprises a major domed compartment linked by a tunnel vault to an apse with a semi-dome at the east. The north chapel occupies a small domed space on the east and the lower level of the northern tunnel vault, which contains a two-bay groin-vaulted gallery framed by semi-circular arches on the open sides, with the organ loft above. The south vestries are contained within a similar structure, with the wall to the chancel blocked at the lower level and treated as a two-bay blind arcade containing a door to the middle vestry. The division between nave and chancel is marked by a large rood loft at gallery level, sited beneath the western arch of the main dome of the chancel. The nave consists of a second major domed compartment connected to the chancel by a short tunnel vault, with similar extensions to the north and south serving as aisles.

The altar stands within the apse, raised on two black marble steps beneath a yellow marble baldacchino in the form of a groin vault with pyramidal roof, supported on four Ionic columns with entablature. Carved details are in white veined marble. The altar itself is constructed of the same materials with yellow marble confined to panels. The east end is partly screened by a gallery bearing a rood. An octagonal font of painted stone with a stem made up of attached shafts stands at the west end of the south aisle, with a flat wooden cover. Behind the font is a painted and gilded tabernacle attached to the wall. The north chapel functions as a Lady Chapel, enclosed by a handsome wrought-iron screen and containing a window of 1965 from St Philip, Blackburn. A small pipe organ by Nicholson and Lord of Walsall is situated in the north gallery.

The 1983 extension by Buttress Fuller architects added a narthex with meeting room and ancillary facilities. This addition is simple and respectful, though not of special architectural interest. The church itself is of exceptional quality and represents a rare surviving work by a major architect, many of whose buildings have already been demolished.