Roman Catholic Church Of St Dunstan

MANCHESTER

SD80SE MOSTON LANE, Lightbowne 698-1/3/729 (North side) Roman Catholic Church of St Dunstan

GV II

Roman Catholic church. 1937, by E.B.Norris and F.M.Reynolds. Brown brick in Flemish bond, with red brick dressings and tiled roofs. Romanesque style. Nave on north-south axis with low flat-roofed aisles, south-east tower and south-west transept balancing this, short east and west transepts to low octagonal crossing tower, apsidal sanctuary flanked by side-chapels. The high gabled south front, with two pale bands at a low level, has a segmental-headed doorway in the centre with stone surround and hoodmould with keystone, flanked by two low round-headed windows each side. The inner pair of these are set in pilasters rising to flank a tall round-headed blank arch which has red brick infill (gauged in the head) containing a carved stone plaque depicting St Dunstan with various emblems, and above this a tall round-headed lancet with stone surround, and a keystone serving as the pedestal to a niche with a statue. The square tower to the right has a segmental-headed doorway in the right-hand side (like that at the front), pairs of very small loop-lights on 5 levels, then small coupled round-headed belfry windows with unusual corbelled and canted balconies beneath, an unusual band of pairs of loop-lights (in place of a Lombard frieze), and a pyramidal roof. The pilastered 3-bay nave and the transepts have round-headed lancets with stepped red brick surrounds; and the crossing tower has an oculus in each cardinal face. Interior: 3-bay aisle arcades with low plain semi-circular arches; tall round-headed plain arches to the crossing; sanctuary with barrel-vaulted ceiling and apse with mosaic arcading and ceiling depicting the Holy Spirit as dove. Similar to Church of St Willibrord, North Road, Clayton (q.v.), also by Reynolds.

Listing NGR: SD8711801983