Church Of The Virgin Mary Eleousa

The Church of the Virgin Eleousa began as a Congregational church, constructed around 1880 and later repurposed as a Greek Orthodox church. It is built of red brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, designed in the Perpendicular Revival style. The building consists of a nave with clerestory and aisles, with the west end forming the prominent façade.

The west gable is coped and features blind tracery framing a single lancet window. A projecting porch has a pair of doors set within a pointed arched recess flanked by shafts and topped with a traceried gable. Above the porch are two two-light traceried windows in pointed arched openings with shafts. A panelled square turret is located to the left, and a taller square turret, with a traceried panelled bell stage, cross gable and finial is to the right. The returns of the building have two-light clerestory windows.

The nave has four bays and shallow buttresses. The shouldered, coped east gable contains a round window. The clerestory features unusual pointed arched windows of four lights, with traceried linked heads. The south side has a gabled stair turret, with a doorway on its west side and a cross mullioned panel above, incorporating a three-light window with a traceried head. The north aisle, with four bays, has two-light windows with trefoil heads, and the west end features a traceried single lancet.

The interior remains largely original with decorations and furnishings appropriate for Greek Orthodox worship, including extensive wall paintings. The main space is covered by a boarded segmental roof with unusual round-arched wooden trusses, while the aisles have plain lean-to roofs. The east end incorporates a chamfered pointed arch with a brick extrados and a traceried panel framing a round window. This arch is filled with a painted panel and screened by a panelled iconostasis. The arcades, five bays in total, have similar arches supported by octagonal columns and wall shafts. The clerestory has brick segmental arches. At the west end, a raked wooden gallery overlooks the main space, accompanied by two patterned stained-glass windows. Beneath the gallery is a central projection with a three-light traceried window, and plain doors to either side. The entrance lobby is fitted with half-glazed doors with shaped heads, and a wooden dogleg staircase features a traceried balustrade. Original benches are present in the main space and gallery, alongside later 20th-century fittings.