Roman Catholic Church of the English Martyrs and attached presbytery

Roman Catholic Church of the English Martyrs and Attached Presbytery

A Roman Catholic church built in 1931–32 by Williams and Jopling of Hull in Early Christian style. The building is constructed in thin red brick, mainly in English Garden Wall bond, with brick, tile and stone dressings, and has barrel tile roofs.

The church is orientated with its entrance on the west front aligned with the road to the south west, and its ritual east end facing north east. It comprises a nave with side aisles and a simple apsidal chancel. The aisles also have apses for side altars. The ground floor of the west end of the nave is partitioned to form a narthex, with an open organ gallery above. Confessionals are housed in a projection from the north aisle. A campanile is attached to the south aisle and also forms a south porch. Adjacent to this, in the angle between the narthex and the west end of the south aisle, is a baptistery. A loggia extends from the eastern end of the south aisle, linking to the presbytery. The presbytery has a central entrance plan, orientated to face the road.

Exterior

The chancel is expressed externally as a simple apse lit by two small slit windows to the sides. The nave comprises seven bays with round-arched clerestory windows to each bay. All windows to the church and presbytery are leaded and glazed with colourless glass in a geometric Art Deco style and have slanting brick sills. The rainwater hoppers are inscribed with the date 1932.

The aisles are single-storey with four bays to the south and seven to the north, with windows matching those of the clerestory. The confessionals are expressed externally as a flat-roofed brick extension to the north aisle, which has six slit windows. The apses to the aisles are blind.

The entrance front features the nave with overhanging eaves and a dentilated cornice, and three stepped round-arched recesses, the central of which has two orders. The main entrance is approached up two stone steps at the base of this recess and comprises double wooden rectangular doors within a square stone surround carved with martyrs' palms. Above this, also in stone, are the arms of Pope Pius XI. The upper part of the arms overlay the lower section of a square brick and tile frame, within which is a colourful mosaic of the Virgin Mary holding crosses and inscribed REGINA MARTYRUM. Above the mosaic panel is a round-headed three-light stepped window. The infill between the window and the brick orders consists of herringbone brickwork. The smaller side recesses also have herringbone infills pierced with rectangular flat-headed windows. There are two further rectangular flat-headed windows with stone shields above on the ground floor either side of the main entrance. The left return has an engaged stair turret with slit window, giving access to the organ gallery.

The campanile is of four stages. The lowest forms a porch to the church and has an elliptically pointed arch formed with graduated voussoirs infilled above impost level with vertically set tiles incorporating a Latin cross in relief. The lower three stages are undivided, being defined only by the placement of simple square-headed slit windows. The corners of the campanile are rebated and culminate in corbelled platforms at the bottom of the octagonal fourth bell stage. On these platforms sit crosses constructed of stacked tiles encased in strips of copper. The remaining four faces have paired round-headed openings with a central stone shaft with carved capital. Above these openings is a pyramidal pantile roof surmounted with a stone cross.

Interior

The apsidal chancel is defined by a round chancel arch of three simple recessed orders without piers or bases, the apse being white plastered and unadorned except for a simple gold band.

The nave is white plastered and painted with round-arched clerestory windows and a timber barrel-vaulted ceiling. The purlins are painted in a decorative polychromatic design and there is a simple moulded sill band below the clerestory windows. The aisles are separated from the nave by arcades of stilted arches of moulded rubbed red brick and plain stone columns with large cushion capitals. Each face of the capitals is bordered with foliate carving; a few capitals also have carving to the central panels, suggesting that at one time the intention was to have each capital fully carved. The wooden roof-trusses and ceiling panels of the lean-to aisles have been left with the timber exposed and are simply decorated with some incising and polychromatic painting.

The north aisle has a lady chapel at its east end with a stone altar and statue of Our Lady of Walsingham. Leading off this aisle are two blocks of confessionals in moulded wood surrounds with heavy wood doors also with small square leaded glass panels. The block of confessionals to the west has been converted into a shrine and display area with doors removed. The south aisle has a Blessed Sacrament chapel at its east end. The west end has a baptistery with a contemporary carved stone font. There is a further single wood and glazed door leading from the south aisle to the loggia.

The west gallery and narthex is defined by a triple round arch similar to the chancel arch, the gallery being supported above the narthex by engaged pilasters with cushion capitals. The gallery has a painted front with the text TE MARTYRUM CANDIDATUS LAUDAT EXERCITUS. The double doors to the narthex are of dark wood with small square leaded glass panels set in a plain square-framed opening.

Fixed wooden benches of Austrian oak are stepped to work around the columns and have moulded tops to the bench ends. A simple stone-slab altar is set in the chancel with a crucifix on the wall of the apse behind. The gallery also functions as an organ loft and houses a small organ.

Loggia

The church is connected to the presbytery by a three-bay two-storey loggia with a round-arched arcade below and three slit windows above. The central two columns are stone rather than brick and their capitals are inscribed with the Chi Rho.

Presbytery

The presbytery is of three bays and two storeys with a hipped roof and tall chimney stack to the south side. The main façade is symmetrical with Venetian windows to the ground floor of the flanking bays. Above each Venetian window is a three-light flat-headed window, the central light of which is double the width of the outer two. The central bay has a large square stone-framed recessed doorway on a stone plinth, decorated with the stylised letters E and M in the upper corners. Above this is a round-arched stair window. Later rear extensions to the presbytery are excluded from the listing.

Boundary Walls

The boundary walls are of thin coursed red brick in stretcher bond topped with polygonal capping bricks. Openings (a smaller opening to the presbytery and a larger to the church) are marked with taller brick gateposts, also topped with polygonal capping bricks and have ironwork gates. The rear boundary wall is excluded from the listing.