Roman Catholic Church of St Mary Our Lady of Sorrows

Roman Catholic Church of St Mary Our Lady of Sorrows

A Roman Catholic church built between 1962 and 1963 to designs by Walter Stirrup & Son, with Kevin Houghton as job architect. The church is constructed of mottled light brown and orange brick with a reinforced concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof.

The building is planned on a square laid out diamond-wise, with the sanctuary facing north-west. The liturgical plan arranges the sanctuary diagonally opposite a cantilevered choir gallery and entrance vestibule. On the liturgical north side of the sanctuary, a single-storey flat-roofed range contains two sacristies, a corridor connecting to the adjoining presbytery, two confessionals and a garage.

The church stands on the north-west side of the junction of Duke Street and Market Street. The dominant feature is the reinforced concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof composed of four equal shells with steep corner peaks. The roof is supported on reinforced concrete piers positioned at the mid-point of each main wall and deeply overhangs the walls below.

The west corner entrance is set beneath a projecting triangular concrete canopy. Two pairs of Honduras mahogany double doors are embellished with vertical timber strips and Latin crosses, fitted with aluminium rod handles. A triangular area of green Westmorland slate flags extends in front of the doors, echoing the canopy's shape. Above the canopy is a corner dalle de verre concrete window, and a sanctus bell is suspended from a concrete bracket on the soffit of the overhanging roof peak.

The Duke Street and Market Street elevations are mirror images. Each has a narrow vertical window flanking the corner entrance; these were originally full-height but now have a slightly recessed brick apron beneath. The opposite corners to the entrance feature large clerestorey windows beneath the overhanging roof peaks. All windows have aluminium frames with slender mullions and vertical rows of differently-sized panes of coloured glass with intermediate narrow rectangular casements set above green slate sills. The sanctuary has a large corner clerestorey window with diagonal sills sloping to the centre, fitted with an aluminium frame with slender transoms, rows of differently-sized coloured glass panes, and a green slate sill.

Internally, the entrance vestibule is floored with green Westmorland slate flags, with two inner pairs of double doors opening beneath the cantilevered choir gallery into the main church body. The vertically-banded timber doors have narrow full-height glazing strips flanking shaped aluminium handles. On the right side is a single solid timber door leading to WCs; adjacent is a children's room with a glazed screen overlooking the church.

The main body is framed by exposed reinforced concrete portal frames painted white, supporting the hyperbolic paraboloid roof and creating a quadripartite vault with curving forms that frame the sanctuary, west choir gallery, entrance vestibule and two other corners. The sanctuary features a platform and steps of green slate flags with an upper platform of cream marble flags. The lower platform has partial altar rails of cream and dark green marble cut in square form. A circular font of cream and dark green marble with a brass cover stands to the right, while the left side has an ambo and small tabernacle altar both in cream and dark green marble. A doorway with vertically-banded timber door leads through to the sacristies. The upper platform holds a cream marble altar with a timber and metal crucifix. The cantilevered choir gallery has vertical timber boarding with a rectangular timber rail raised on circular metal rods; it is accessed by an angled staircase with timber treads cantilevered from a central cranked steel spine and balustrades of rectangular timber rails with circular metal rod balusters. The west window contains brightly-coloured dalle de verre glass representing Marian symbols by Carl Edwards of Whitefriars. A pipe organ in a timber frame following the roof's slope occupies the gallery. The wall to the left of the sanctuary has three doorways with vertically-banded timber doors giving access to the two confessionals and the sacristies. Towards the left-hand end, a small rectangular statue niche set into the wall contains a statue of the Madonna. The Stations of the Cross are represented as line drawings in timber frames around the walls, with a larger line drawing of the Baptism of Christ in the south corner marking the original baptistery location. A marble Pieta from the earlier church stands next to the choir gallery.