Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph

This Roman Catholic church was built in 1899–1900 to designs by Edmund Kirby of Liverpool. It is constructed of Ruabon brick with terracotta dressings, has a Westmorland green slate roof and cast-iron rainwater goods, and is designed in the Early English style.

Plan and Setting

The church stands at the junction of North Road and Willowbank Road. It comprises a tall nave with lean-to side aisles, a short chancel, and side chapels. The building is aligned north-south, with the chancel at the south (ritual east) end. All directional references below refer to the ritual orientation rather than the geographical one.

Exterior

All elevations feature stringcourses, as well as continuous hoodmoulds and sill bands to the windows.

The west end presents the gable end of the nave, flanked by full-height buttresses that rise above the roofline as slender turrets with gableted caps. At the centre of the gable are three tall, stepped lancets forming the west window, separated by gableted pilaster strips. Below the west window, lighting the narthex, are three sets of small paired lancet windows with trefoil-arched heads. A blind oval oculus is set at the gable apex with a cross finial above. To the left of the nave is a low porch with windows matching those of the narthex, a hipped roof, and a Gothic-arched entrance opening to the north return. To the right is a two-storey porch with trefoil-arched windows to both floors and a hipped roof. A Gothic-arched opening to the ground floor of the south return has been converted into a window.

The nave is of eleven bays with a clerestory lit by paired lancets with cusped heads set within a blind arcade. Below are lean-to side aisles. The north aisle is buttressed and lit mainly by four four-light lancet windows. At the western end of the north aisle is a porch (as described above), and at the eastern end the aisle's lean-to roof projects forward for a single bay, with a doorway to the west return having a segmental-arched head set within a blind trefoil arch. The south aisle incorporates three cross-gabled projections to the centre, which form the confessionals and are lit by three-light, stepped lancet windows. At the western end of the south aisle is the two-storey porch (as described above), and at the eastern end is a low, hipped-roof projection forming part of the sacristy.

The chancel is identified externally by two tall paired windows with sexfoils rising above the nave's eaves line on each north and south side, set underneath individual gables. Attached to the north side of the chancel is a low, buttressed side chapel lit by a three-light, stepped lancet window. The south side chapel is completely enclosed by sacristy projections that wrap around and across the east elevation. The chapel is thus identified by a gabled roof lantern with glazing to three sides that rises above the sacristy rooflines.

The church's east end elevation is partly obscured by the adjacent presbytery but incorporates a large rose window with an oval blind oculus at the gable apex and a floriated Celtic cross-style finial. Gableted buttresses in the same style as those to the west end flank the east end; that to the left (south) side also acts as a chimney for a low, cross-gabled sacristy projection attached to the chancel's south return.

The attached presbytery is not of special interest.

Interior

Internally the church has plastered walls, a mixture of plain leaded glazing and coloured cathedral glass to the windows, and exposed moulded-brick arches to the nave arcades, chancel and south side aisle. The nave and chancel both have arched-braced roofs, with each brace being brightly painted and stencilled in a variety of colours (the interior's stencilwork was introduced in 1971 and 1986). The nave ceiling is boarded and painted red. The nave arcades incorporate ashlar dressings and are supported by columns of various polished granites with carved ashlar capitals and bases of varying style. Above the arcades, and set below the clerestory windows, are a moulded-brick frieze of small trefoil arches and a stone cornice, which support the roof braces.

Parquet floors are found throughout the church interior, except in the narthex, which has a quarry tile floor with a geometric border. The narthex also has a glazed tile dado that continues into the main body of the church. The north-west porch contains a stone piscina, and the former south-west porch is now used as a small shop area.

A timber winder stair at the west end of the south side aisle leads up to the west gallery (added in 1910), which is bracketed and spans the full width of the nave. The gallery is painted and gilded with a balustrade incorporating pierced upper panels, and contains an organ by Alex Young & Sons of Manchester (1911) that was refurbished in 1934 and 1971.

Both side aisles have boarded ceilings, painted green with candy-stripe roll-mouldings and chevron decoration, and brightly painted and stencilled roof trusses supported by stone corbels. The Stations of the Cross (1904) that adorn the side aisles are believed to have been carved in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany, and consist of large, gableted and crocketed, painted and gilded panels with cross finials and relief imagery. Panelled screens located in the three central cross-gables of the south side aisle form confessionals and incorporate some of the Stations of the Cross. The screens are surmounted by pierced quatrefoil balustrades.

Situated at the east end of the north side aisle, and separated from the chancel by a decorative pierced screen, is the Lady Chapel, which has a painted and gilded timber reredos incorporating linenfold panelling and a tester above the altar. A statue of the Virgin Mary to the centre is a replacement erected in 1952. At the east end of the south side aisle is the Sacred Heart Chapel, which has a raised floor and is lit by a gabled roof lantern with glazed, cusped windows to three sides with patterned leaded glazing and some coloured cathedral glass. The east wall is decorated and incorporates the original tabernacle from the High Altar. Both side chapels have panelled dados.

Flanking the chancel arch are near life-size statues set upon corbelled plinths: that to the left depicts St Peter (1904), whilst that to the right depicts St Joseph (1903). Set in front of the chancel arch to the left is a Portland stone font (1902) supported on a polished granite colonnette base. The chancel itself is enclosed by painted and gilded timber altar rails (1923) and has a raised floor and a decorative, painted, square-panelled roof. A tall panelled dado topped by a decorative border and cornice runs around the three walls and incorporates three canopied sedilia to the south side. Set into an alcove below the east rose window is a carved, painted and gilded oak reredos (1923) from Salzburg, Austria. Flanking the reredos to each north and south wall of the chancel are blind arches. A late 20th-century free-standing altar stands at the centre of the chancel and re-uses the original mensa (stone altar slab). Above, suspended from the ceiling, is a carved crucifix.

The sacristy wraps itself around the south side chapel and eastern end of the church and contains a mixture of parquet, quarry tile and floorboard floors. A large room at the south-east corner of the building, which is used as a day chapel, has exposed purlins, a king-post roof, and a fireplace with a marble surround to the north wall, which is adjacent to a door leading into the chancel.