Roman Catholic Church Of St Francis With Attached Presbytery And School

The Roman Catholic church of St Francis, built in 1835, stands alongside an attached presbytery and school building. The church is constructed from squared sandstone with quoins, the side walls rendered and painted white. It is a long rectangular structure aligned north-south, with the church at the south end and the school building at the north end of the presbytery. The church has a simple classical design, featuring a symmetrical south gable with a round-headed entrance containing double doors and a fanlight with radiating glazing bars. Flanking the doorway are two round-headed windows, and above them, a panel inscribed "GLORY BE TO GOD ON HIGH." The gable has a moulded coping with kneelers, the apex bearing a square bellcote surmounted by a cross, with the date 1835 inscribed. Four large round-headed windows are present on each side wall, and decorative tie-plates are arranged vertically between the windows on the west side. The interior is decorated in a classical style, with a sanctuary distinguished by fluted Corinthian pilasters, a plain frieze, and a cornice with egg-and-dart and modillion decoration. A panelled gallery occupies the south end.

The presbytery, originally a late 17th-century farmhouse, is likely sandstone, stuccoed, and painted pink. It features a three-bay baffle-entry plan and two storeys, with a glazed porch aligned with a ridge chimney. There are three sash windows without glazing bars on each floor, facing east. A rear stair turret with a parallel ridged roof is attached to the rear. Inside, back-to-back inglenook fireplaces with chamfered bressummers contain 18th-century stone fireplaces with corbelled jambs; the central fireplace is moulded with a cornice. The ceiling beams are potentially replacements. A shallow rear addition is also present. The school building, constructed probably in the late 18th century, extends northward from the presbytery, with five bays—the two bays at the southern end being two storeys and featuring two-light flush mullion windows, while the remaining bays are single-storey and have vertical rectangular windows, although altered. The building is also stuccoed and painted pink. The complex is also known as Hill Chapel.