Church Of St Joseph

TATTON STREET

SJ 89 SE, SP/39 0/39

CHURCH OF ST JOSEPH

II

Roman Catholic church. 1861-2 by Matthew Ellison Hadfield of Sheffield, architect, Messrs J Robinson of Hyde, Cheshire, builders. Hammer-dressed Yorkshire grit-stone, Hollington stone dressings, slate roofs. Basilican plan: nave and clerestory, three sided apse, aisles and south side base of tower, 2-storey sacristy. Nave and apse under one roof pitch. Simplified High Victorian gothic, early decorated details "of an English type" (Builder). Liturgical west front has two lancets flanking ogee headed door under pitched gable with crockets. Two 3-light geometric tracery windows above, cinquefoil roundel in gable. 3-light tracery clerestory and apse windows, segmental tracery aisle liturgical east windows. INTERIOR: 5-bay nave arcades, Derbyshire marble bases, Yorkshire stone shafts and capitals, simplified chamfered arches. Arched braced panelled nave roof. Chancel arch reduced to doubled arched braces with quatrefoil panelling, set on stone corbel. Exposed raftered aisle roofs. Original built-in confessionals extended through aisle walls under traceried windows. West gallery. High altar and chancel furniture as memorial to 1914-1918 war dead. East window, stained, 1882. Design heavily influenced by Hadfield's former partner George Goldie and by the mid-century re- action against A W N Pugin's planning and liturgical principles: "arrange(d).. so that the greatest possible space shall be given up for the use of the congregat- ion with the facility for seeing and hearing and abundance of light": Builder, March 30, 1862, p 216. Centenary Record, Diocese of Shrewsbury, 1851-1951, (1951, pp 91-92.

Listing NGR: SJ8960990315