Church Of St Paul With St Luke

The Church of St Paul with St Luke is a parish church dating from 1854-5, designed by W. and J. Hay. It is constructed of coursed and squared red sandstone with Welsh slate roofs. The church comprises a nave with transepts, a chancel, and a substantial tower with a spire to the north of the chancel. The tower features heavy angle buttresses, one containing a stair turret. A doorway in the north face has shafts and a hood mould. The second stage of the tower has triple trefoiled windows within chamfered arcading, topped with coping, and the angles feature pinnacles that support the spire, which has a clock and tall, thin, louvred lucarnes creating the bell-chamber lights. The nave has three two-light Decorated windows to the south and a doorway on the east side, adjacent to a projecting vestry which balances the tower to the south of the chancel. A large five-light window is located on the west side. A visible scar marks where a porch has been added within a later hall complex, and a four-light Decorated window is present in the transepts, comprising five trefoiled lancets below. The east window is also five-light, Decorated style, and includes a crucifix as a war memorial below. Inside, the aisleless nave has three bays defined by pointed arched braced principal rafters carried on long wall posts springing from corbels. The shallow transepts form a wide crossing, with roof trusses creating a quadripartite vault above. A moulded and chamfered chancel arch is also present, and a screen, dated 1910 and enriched in 1922 by Hastwell Grayson, divides the chancel. The screen has ogee traceried open-work panels in Perpendicular style, with an enriched central arch. Above the screen is a crucifix with figures of Saints Mary and John, placed on a coved canopy. A pulpit in a similar style was erected when the screen was enriched in 1922. A painted reredos features a central piece dating from between 1883 and 1897, depicting Christ in majesty, with hinged wings added later (after 1907), showing painted saints and angels. A marble octagonal font with low relief angels at the cardinal points stands nearby. Stained glass includes angels and archangels in the east window, figures of saints in the north and south chancel windows, a white glazed ceramic low relief depiction of the Annunciation in the lower part of the south window, and scenes of bishops and St George in the lower lights of the north transept. The lower lights of the south transept depict scenes from the life of Mary (1920-1922), and the upper window illustrates the life of St Paul (1922).