Church Of St Hugh And Attached Vestry

Church of St Hugh and attached vestry

A Roman Catholic church built in 1893, designed by Albert Vicars. The building is constructed in rockfaced stone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof, executed in the Early English style with mainly pointed arched windows.

The plan comprises a north-west tower with spire, a nave with aisles, a clerestory and double side chapels, a canted apsidal east end, a west porch, and an attached vestry to the north.

The north-west tower features a double chamfered plinth, moulded string courses and an arcaded corbel table. Angle buttresses rise to the second stage, becoming octagonal turrets topped with pinnacles above. A half-round conical roofed stair turret projects to the east. The west side has a 2-light window with hoodmould and above it an empty niche. The north side has a similar window with 2 single lancets above. The second stage has a quatrefoil light to north and west. The bell stage carries paired louvred openings with shafts on each side. Above rises a setback octagonal spire topped with a cross.

The nave spans 6 bays with plain pilasters and a coped gable with cross. A south-west angle buttress topped with an arcaded square pinnacle marks the corner. The west end displays a 5-light window with tracery and above it a blind arcade. The clerestory contains 2 lancets in each bay on each side.

The north aisle has 3 single lancets and an off-centre lean-to side chapel. The south aisle has to the left 2 small buttresses, to their right 2 lancets, and a lean-to projection with 3 round windows. Further right stands a porch with coped gable and a canted side chapel with 2 lancets.

The major side chapels to the east have coped gables and square headed windows—2 to the west, a single one to the east. The canted apse has angle buttresses and 3 single lancets with trefoil heads.

The west porch has a coped gable with cross and a canopied niche containing a figure of St Hugh. A single angle buttress stands to one side. Two pointed arched moulded doorways with shafts feature relief scenes in the tympana.

Internally, the nave has 5-bay arcades with round piers, double chamfered arches with hoodmoulds, and a barrel vaulted wooden roof with round wall shafts on corbels. The west end has 2 doors flanked by single windows and a stained glass memorial window of 1921.

The aisles have lean-to roofs with wall shafts and a doorway at each end; those to the east have a pointed opening above containing organ pipes. Both aisles contain stained glass windows from the 19th and 20th centuries. The north aisle has an off-centre segmental pointed opening to a side chapel with an ogee crested canopied gradine, and to its left, 3 doorways. The south aisle has a similar chapel with canopied and crested gradine, and to its right, single and double doors to confessionals. The side chapels contain stained glass windows.

The east end has a double chamfered arch with round responds on foliage corbels. Below them are figures on brackets. The apse features a moulded band and mosaic dado. In each side is a double chamfered archway with a wooden screen to the north and an organ to the south. An arch braced tie beam roof with a central octagonal post covers the space. An elaborate Decorated style crested reredos with crocketed canopies and spires dominates the east end.

Fittings include 19th-century panelled stalls, desks and benches, and an arcaded octagonal stone pulpit. Memorials include a wreathed brass tablet of 1908.