Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and Presbytery and boundary wall

Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and Presbytery

This Roman Catholic church and adjoining presbytery, together with boundary wall and gate piers, were built between 1878 and 1879 to designs by M E Hadfield and Son. The buildings are constructed in the Perpendicular Gothic style.

Both the church and presbytery are built of coursed, squared sandstone blocks with stone dressings and red tiled roofs. The boundary wall is similarly constructed of coursed, squared sandstone blocks with stone dressings and monolithic stone gate piers.

The Church

The church comprises a five-bay unaisled nave and a two-bay sanctuary under one roof. A north porch provides the main entrance, with a north projection containing the organ chamber. A single-storey sacristy and confessional are positioned on the south side. The building rests on a moulded plinth with a moulded sill band running to the sanctuary.

The division between sanctuary and nave is marked by stone coping to the red tiled roof and a small stone bell turret with shaped openings for two bells and mechanisms, topped by an octagonal spire. The east end features angled corner buttresses with blind tracery panels. A five-light pointed-arch window with Geometrical tracery and hood mould lights the sanctuary. The gable displays kneelers, coping and a stone cross finial at its apex.

Both north and south sides of the sanctuary are lit by square-headed windows with hood moulds containing three lights with tracery heads. The north elevation, which faces the road, extends for seven bays. To the right of the sanctuary window, the second bay contains a small rectangular windowless projecting organ chamber with gabled buttresses featuring blind tracery panels and a corbel table with carved heads and flowers. The nave to the right is lit by square-headed windows: the third and seventh bays have three lights with tracery heads; the fourth and fifth bays have two lights with tracery heads; bays are separated by a buttress.

The sixth bay projects as a gabled porch with angled corner buttresses, coping and a stone cross finial. The pointed-arch doorway has a hood mould and plank door. Above it is a projecting, crocketed niche containing a painted statue of St Joseph holding the infant Jesus. The west end has angled corner buttresses and a four-light pointed-arch window with Geometrical tracery and hood mould. Its gable displays kneelers, coping and a stone cross finial.

The south elevation has four square-headed windows of two and three lights with tracery heads lighting the nave, separated by a buttress between the second and third bays. A lean-to confessional, link passage and sacristy abut the presbytery to the right.

The sacristy's east elevation features squared stonework and a coped plinth running through to the presbytery. It has a square-headed doorway with rectangular tracery overlight and a square-headed two-light window with tracery heads to its immediate left.

Interior of the Church

The five-bay nave contains an arch-braced wagon roof with wall shafts, corbels and sill band. The walls are plastered and painted with modern pine panelling dado.

On both sides of the wide chancel arch are canopied niches: Our Lady stands to the left and the Sacred Heart to the right. The sanctuary reredos features richly carved Beer stone panelling and niches containing statues of St Joseph and St Peter. Relief panels on each side represent the deaths of St Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. The altar and tabernacle are of polished alabaster with an Hopton Wood marble altar slab. Beneath lies a sculptural representation of the Dead Christ, his head and feet supported by angels, carved in white polished alabaster.

The east window depicts the Crucifixion, St Augustine, St John of Beverley, St Ann and St Mary Magdalen. It is designed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, as are the two side windows in the sanctuary. A pipe organ by James Conacher and Sons of Huddersfield stands on the north side of the sanctuary.

On the north side of the nave are stained glass windows by E R Frampton (1855), Lavers and Westlake (1904), and a memorial window to Frederick Cadman, died 1880, erected by his widow Margaret. Two further stained glass windows occupy the south side of the nave.

The Presbytery

Exterior

The two-storey presbytery has a three-bay front elevation facing east onto Carr Road. To the left is a wide gabled bay, with a narrow, slightly recessed gabled bay at the centre and a recessed third bay with wall face flush with the sacristy to its right and a stone gable stack. The elevation sits on a coped plinth with a narrow moulded band between ground and first floors, which also forms a hood mould over the deep lintel of the central doorway.

On the ground floor, the left bay has a stone cross-frame window; to the right is a six-light stone mullion and transom window. The first floor has three-light stone mullion windows to the first and third bays and a single-light window over the doorway. All windows, door and overlight now have replacement uPVC frames. The left bay has a small square-headed lancet to the gable apex. A down-pipe between the two gables is dated 1878.

The original south, garden elevation comprises four bays with a large stepped stone stack between the first and second bays and a ridge stack between the third and fourth bays. Single-light and two-light square-headed windows light this elevation, with a lean-to bay window at the fourth bay. All windows have replacement uPVC frames. At the left-hand end is a two-bay extension: a single-storey flat-roofed outer bay and a lower two-storey bay, both faced in coursed stonework (the outer gable wall of the two-storey bay is built of brick). The outer bay contains a doorway; the second bay has a ground-floor window and blocked first-floor window.

Interior of the Presbytery

Original features include painted six-panelled doors on the ground floor and four-panelled doors on the first floor, with simple moulded cornices to the entrance hall and main rooms on both floors. The main entrance doorway has an inner porch with painted half-glazed double doors and rectangular overlight. The staircase and first-floor landing feature painted-timber balustrades with turned balusters, moulded handrails and octagonal newel posts with shaped finials and pendants to the upper newels.

Boundary Wall and Gates

The church and presbytery are bounded by a wall of squared, coursed stone with shaped and dressed coping stones. The wall is stepped alongside Carr Road to the east with curved corners at each end. At the right-hand end at the junction with Doncaster Road is a curved, inscribed name panel for Carr Road set into the wall.

Pedestrian gateways in the east stretch of wall feature shaped, monolithic stone gate piers set on deep plinths with shaped caps. The north stretch of wall alongside Doncaster Road has a wider gateway with similar gate piers to the right-hand return. The stone wall continues a short distance to the right of the gateway, which also has an internal flight of steps up to the higher pathway leading to the north porch with a short inner retaining wall with shaped coping.

The south wall enclosing the presbytery garden has a vehicular entrance at the left-hand end. On the right-hand side is a round-headed stone gate pier; the pier to the left has been replaced with a similarly-shaped concrete gate pier. All gateways have modern metal gates.