Roman Catholic Church of St Alban with attached Presbytery

Roman Catholic Church of St Alban with Attached Presbytery

A Roman Catholic church with attached presbytery built in 1897-8 to designs by Empsall and Clarkson of Bradford, with contractors Robinsons of Bradford. The building is constructed in Gothic Revival style. A south-west tower, north aisle and chapel were added in 1910.

Historical Context

The church was built to serve the growing Catholic population of Denaby Main, a mining village that developed from the 1860s following the opening of Denaby Main colliery in 1859 and Cadeby pit in 1889. New terraced housing was constructed for miners' families. Before the church was built, local Catholics travelled to St Peter-in-Chains in Doncaster or St Joseph's in Wath upon Dearne for worship. A mission was founded in 1894 by Revd Thomas Kavanagh, initially using a disused infants' school behind houses on Doncaster Road as a temporary chapel. By 1895 the congregation had grown to 90 members. Revd Kavanagh began fundraising for a permanent church, and the Montague family donated an acre of land. Construction began in 1897 and the first Mass was celebrated in the new church on 22 June 1898.

The church was extended in 1910 with a bell tower, north aisle and Sacred Heart chapel. The sacristy and south vestibule were refurbished shortly afterwards. In 1912 a catastrophic explosion at Cadeby pit killed 89 men, many from the congregation at St Alban's.

In 1923 the Sacred Heart chapel became a war memorial chapel. Marble panels depicting St Joan of Arc and St George were installed to represent friendship between England and France. The church was redecorated with mosaics and murals by N A Jarvis, and stained glass windows were installed in the aisle to celebrate the church's Silver Jubilee. In 1949 a new high altar and carved oak reredos were installed in time for the consecration Mass.

Architecture and Structure

The building is constructed of deeply-coursed dressed sandstone with Welsh slate roofs. The plan comprises a nave and chancel in one unit with a north aisle, flanked by single-storey and two-storey gabled projections. A south-west tower rises from the south aisle. A one-storey link connects the south aisle to the two-storey-and-attic rectangular presbytery.

The gabled west end features one-storey side porches with moulded arches and hoodmoulds, flanked by tall buttresses. Two two-light mullioned windows sit beneath a large six-light pointed window with hoodmould rising to a canopied niche containing a white statue. The coped gable is crowned with an apex cross. The square tower, set back on the right, contains a single-light window beneath the ashlar belfry stage. The belfry has pointed six-light openings with hoodmoulds beneath blind cusped panelling, corner gargoyles, a coped parapet, and a shingled octagonal spirelet with a heart-shaped finial.

The north aisle displays three pairs of single-light windows in cavetto-moulded surrounds, tall cusped lights to the gabled projections, and three pairs of cusped lights to the clerestory. The east end has a dated foundation stone. The apsidal chancel features crossed vesicae in octagonal panels on each face.

Interior

The interior contains three-bay aisle arcades with cylindrical piers and double-chamfered arches, with a gallery at the west end. Exposed roof trusses with arch braces and shaped tie beams span the interior.

The Presbytery

The presbytery is oriented at right angles to the church. Its south gable elevation has a door flanked by three-light windows in a single-storey projection, sashed three-light windows to the first floor, a sash window to the attic, and gable copings. The west side displays mullioned and transomed windows, a corniced lateral stack and an end stack on the left. The link to the church features a pointed-arched doorway with side windows under a shared hoodmould beneath a gable with a statue in a niche.