Church Of St Ethelbert

Church of St Ethelbert

A Roman Catholic church designed by Peter Paul Pugin and opened in 1888. The building stands on a narrow site in Bargates, Leominster, originally intended for suburban villas, and is consequently oriented north-south rather than east-west, with north serving as the ritual eastern end.

The church is constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and a plain tiled and slate roof. The sandstone plinth is local stone from Eyton, but the stonework above plinth level was brought from Godsall in Staffordshire.

The plan comprises a nave and chancel forming one continuous body with a single step marking the transition between them. A timber-framed porch projects from the south-east corner with a slate-covered gabled roof, a vestry projects north-west, and a chapel dedicated to Roger Cadwallador projects north-east, both with gabled roofs.

Externally, the style is Gothic, transitional between Decorated and Perpendicular. The ritual west end features a four-light window below which are shields and the text in high relief reading "Ad . Majorem . Dei . Gloriam". To the right of the window is a canopied niche containing an effigy of St Ethelbert, added in 1908 and sculpted by William Storr-Barber, with a small arched window above in the gable. The east window contains three lights. The flanking walls are lit by three windows to the east side and four to the west, all with two cusped lights and a quatrefoil to the apex. The chapel dedicated to Roger Cadwallador has panel tracery to its two eastern windows. Buttresses with offsets rise to the full height of the walls. The porch at the south-east angle is glazed to three sides with chamfered timber posts between which are set panels of diamond-pattern leaded glazing with cusped heads and yellow glass quarries to the margins.

Internally, the roof structure is supported by stone corbels carved with apples, pears, hops and other local crops, carved by Wall of Cheltenham. These corbels support wall posts which rise to join the principals and support arched braces connecting to the collar beam. From the centre of the collar beam two small braces arch outwards to join the principals.

The reredos is of red Runcorn sandstone with a central canopied niche for a monstrance flanked by blind arcading terminating at either end in two further canopied niches containing wooden figures of the Virgin and Child and St Joseph bearing a lily. The stone altar was originally attached to the wall immediately below the reredos but was detached following the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council and moved forward to allow the priest to face the congregation during Mass, accomplished with minimal alteration to the individual parts.

The side chapel contains stained glass windows showing episodes in the life of Roger Cadwallador and a fireplace to the south wall. Above the fireplace are three memorial tablets to members of the Snead-Cox family killed in the First World War, including one carved by Eric Gill which was removed from the Church of the Holy Family at Broxwood to this position in 1987. The flooring throughout is parquet, and there are wooden benches of two different patterns, which early photographs show to be later insertions. The entrance porch has patterned encaustic tiling to the floor and a bench to the north side. There is no evidence of decorative painting to the walls or chancel, and the present painting of the stonework of the reredos was undertaken recently.

Historically, Leominster has strong associations with Roman Catholic martyrdom. The town was the birthplace of Nicholas Wheeler, executed at Tyburn in 1586, and the place of execution of Roger Cadwallador. It was a stronghold of recusant activity throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the eighteenth century, Catholics in the town were served by priests from Hereford or Weobley. In 1868 the congregation purchased the former Congregational Church in Burgess Street. A priest was appointed to the town in 1877, and in 1884 Father Athanasius Rogers began a tenure lasting until 1915. The new church was funded by Mrs Louise Herbert, widow of a solicitor in the town, and designed by Peter Paul Pugin. Following the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1964, the church underwent slight reordering, involving the detachment of the stone altar from the ritual eastern wall and removal of the former altar rails, which are now lost.