Roman Catholic Church of Holy Name of Jesus

Roman Catholic Church of Holy Name of Jesus

This is a Roman Catholic church built in orange brick with a red tiled roof. Although aligned approximately north-south, liturgical compass points are used in describing the building. The church comprises a five-bay nave with a polygonal sanctuary, a west porch and baptistery (now a meeting room), a north Lady Chapel, and a south sacristy with a former garage, now also a meeting room.

Exterior

The church is constructed of orange brick in English garden wall bond (3:1) with a chamfered plinth, moulded brick sill and window head bands, and a deep stepped eaves band. The red tiled roof has kicked eaves. The gabled west end, facing the road, features a large rose window with moulded brick sexfoil tracery. The deep overhanging eaves are finished with timber bargeboards, presently painted blue, and a small terracotta foliate Celtic cross sits at the gable apex. Beneath the rose window is a full-width, single-storey lean-to porch and baptistery with a central gablet. The lower level is of brick, with three trefoil-headed windows in the centre and a screen of timber-framed windows to each side, all featuring leaded lights.

The south elevation displays four bays of four narrow trefoil-headed windows separated by buttresses. The windows have leaded lights except for the two inner lights in the fourth bay, which are stained glass. At the left-hand end is an entrance doorway in the side of the lean-to porch, with timber double doors beneath deep overhanging eaves on timber brackets. At the right-hand end is a shallow two-storey gabled projection with a gable stack. The single-storey sacristy extension abuts the gable wall. The red tiled roof has kicked eaves and is hipped to the outer elevation.

The north elevation is similarly detailed, with the single-storey Lady Chapel projecting at the left-hand end. It also has a red tiled roof with kicked eaves, hipped to the outer elevation. The polygonal sanctuary features diagonal buttresses with three narrow trefoil-headed windows to each face. The three inner faces have stained glass windows, with leaded lights to the two outer faces.

Interior

The nave has an open roof with boarding and four arch-braced timber trusses with cusped crown-post and diagonal struts between the tie-beams and collars. The walls are of red brick with Tudor-arch moulded detailing encompassing the three-light and four-light windows, which have sloping tiled sills.

The west wall has a central round-headed doorway with double timber doors and a leaded overlight, opening into the porch. It is flanked by two windows to the left and a window converted to a doorway opening into the former baptistery, with an unglazed window to the right. The windows have two trefoil-headed lights with a trefoil above; those to the left have leaded glass. The doorway into the baptistery retains the trefoil and has a shouldered-arch head.

The chancel arch is pointed, with Tudor side arches into the Lady Chapel and through to the sacristy. Both side arches feature Gothic timber screens designed by Edmund Bertram Kirby. The sanctuary contains stained glass windows dated 1903 by Hardman, designed by Edmund Kirby, depicting the Presentation at the Temple flanked by the Nativity and the Agony in the Garden. The Gothic timber reredos, wall panelling, and high altar, now set in a forward position, were designed by Edmund Kirby in 1901. To the right of the chancel screen is a polygonal timber pulpit from 1923.

The Lady Chapel has two stained glass windows by Margaret Agnes Rope. The east window depicts Our Lady with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist, dated circa 1918. The large north window depicts Nine Martyrs of the Shrewsbury Diocese—all of whom were martyred between 1582 and 1689 and were born in the area of the future diocese—alongside Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs, and Our Lord, King of Martyrs, dated 1929. A circular stone font with Gothic carving and a stand of granite columns stands in the Lady Chapel, having been relocated from the baptistery.

On the liturgical south side of the nave is a third stained glass window by Margaret Agnes Rope showing Saint Teresa of Lisieux and Saint Winefride, dated 1929.

The 1955 presbytery is excluded from the listing.