Church Of St Benet And Chapel House

The Church of St. Benet and Chapel House is a Catholic church and priest's house, now serving as a workshop and private residence, built in 1793. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings, featuring a slate roof on the house and a stone slate roof on the church. The house is two storeys high and has three bays facing the street, with the chapel located at the rear, consisting of two bays.

The house includes windows with wedge lintels; the ground floor windows are sashed with glazing bars, while the first-floor windows have casements, with a central blind window. The central entrance is round-headed, flanked by flat pilasters and an open pediment, and features a complete fanlight above a six-panel door. There are gable-end stacks, and the right side of the house has two windows along with a round-headed sashed stair window.

The chapel has round-headed windows that are sashed with glazing bars, with the upper sashes intersecting. The west end of the chapel features a round-headed entrance on the north side, which has a blind tympanum and paired doors. The west end is topped with a stone-coped gable that includes kneelers and a bell-cote supporting a cross, and a tripartite sash window with glazing bars that illuminates the gallery.

The interior of the church remains largely intact, showcasing a panelled dado and cornice. The west gallery is adorned with a stick balustrade and a dog-leg stair on the north side. The east wall features paired fluted Corinthian pilasters on marbled bases, an entablature with urns and anthemions on the frieze, a modillioned cornice, and an open pediment. A central round-headed panel, painted in colors reminiscent of a dawn sky, displays a top relief of swagged curtains, a descending dove with rays of glory, flanked by winged cherub heads. The altar is a marble sarcophagus designed in the form of cyma moulding. This church is an important example of an early Catholic church and is one of the best-preserved examples in the north-west.