Roman Catholic Church Of St Dunstan

The Roman Catholic Church of St Dunstan is a church built in 1937 by architects E.B. Norris and F.M. Reynolds. It features brown brick in Flemish bond with red brick dressings and tiled roofs, designed in a Romanesque style. The nave runs on a north-south axis and is accompanied by low flat-roofed aisles, a south-east tower, and a south-west transept, with short east and west transepts leading to a low octagonal crossing tower and an apsidal sanctuary flanked by side chapels.

The prominent south front has a high gable and two pale bands at a low level. In the center, there is a segmental-headed doorway with a stone surround and hoodmould with a keystone, flanked by two low round-headed windows. The inner pair of windows are set in pilasters that rise to frame a tall round-headed blank arch, which features red brick infill and contains a carved stone plaque depicting St Dunstan with various emblems. Above this is a tall round-headed lancet with a stone surround, and a keystone that serves as a pedestal for a niche with a statue.

To the right, the square tower has a segmental-headed doorway on its right side, similar to the front entrance. It features pairs of very small loop-lights on five levels, small coupled round-headed belfry windows with unusual corbelled and canted balconies beneath, and an unusual band of pairs of loop-lights instead of a Lombard frieze, topped with a pyramidal roof. The pilastered three-bay nave and transepts have round-headed lancets with stepped red brick surrounds, while the crossing tower includes an oculus on each cardinal face.

Inside, the church has three-bay aisle arcades with low plain semi-circular arches and tall round-headed plain arches leading to the crossing. The sanctuary features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and an apse adorned with mosaic arcading and a ceiling depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove. This church is similar in style to the Church of St Willibrord on North Road in Clayton, which was also designed by Reynolds.