Roman Catholic Church of St Winefride

Roman Catholic Church of St Winefride

Roman Catholic church built in 1956 to designs by Francis Xavier Velarde. The building is constructed of brown brick in stretcher bond and English garden wall bond (5:1), without plinth or cornice, and has concrete tile roofs with cast-stone decoration.

The church is orientated with the sanctuary to the west, though liturgical compass points are used for its description. The plan comprises an aisleless nave and apsidal sanctuary under a single roof, with a lower narthex featuring a south doorway, and a linked south-east square campanile with a former baptistery in its base and entrance doorway in the west elevation of the link block. A north-east sacristy and confessional link the church to the presbytery.

The south elevation, facing the road, is divided into five bays defined by large buttresses. A lower, set-back narthex stands at the west end, with the linked campanile and semi-circular sanctuary apse at the east end. The nave bays contain small, paired round-headed windows with cast-stone mullions bearing relief images alternately of an angel and a dove. Above each paired window is a single small round-headed window forming a clerestorey level. The windows have metal frames with geometric patterns of textured clear glass and semi-circles of blue glass. The recessed, pitched-roof narthex has an entrance doorway in the south elevation approached by three shallow steps. The wide doorway features double doors with applied timber beading forming a checked pattern and circular brass handles. Over the doorway is a slightly recessed cusped-head stone tympanum inscribed with a fleur-de-lys motif. The west elevation of the narthex has two pairs of similar round-headed windows with cast-concrete mullions and metal frames.

At the east end of the nave, a parapetted block projects to link the campanile to the church. The west elevation of this link block contains a wide round-headed doorway with similar double doors to the narthex and three shallow steps, now partially obscured by an access ramp. The square campanile rises to a stone-faced bellcote with a large round-headed opening in each face and a pyramidal copper roof surmounted by a bronze cross. Near the base on the east and west sides is a circular window with metal frame and similar glazing of textured clear glass and blue glass, lighting the former baptistery. The sanctuary, to the east of the link block, has a large rectangular window with a cast-stone frame three panes wide by four panes deep, with alternating rectangular and round-headed panes of textured clear glass. The semi-circular east apse is blind. The north elevation has similar detailing and fenestration to the south elevation, with the sacristy in a corresponding position to the campanile link block, connecting to the former presbytery.

The interior walls are of unadorned brown brick. The nave bays are defined by full-width round arches springing low to the ground straight from the nave walls. The arches between the nave and sanctuary and the nave and narthex are smaller and lower. The flat centre and angled sides of the nave roof retain the original geometric decoration of blue and gold diamonds. The flat narthex roof has a pattern of blue squares with blue diamonds and gilt crosses, while the curved sanctuary roof displays striking blue, orange, and red geometric designs. The narthex, nave, sacristy, and link block have square linoleum tiles, with coloured geometric designs in the nave aisle and carpet covering some of the linoleum. The sanctuary has terrazzo flooring.

In the sanctuary stands a white stone altar with an incised gold design of the Chi-Rho (XP, the first two Greek letters for Christ) and crosses, possibly designed by Velarde; comparable altars appear in other of his churches. A gold-painted Velarde crucifix hangs on the wall. A small circular stone font with a conical timber lid stands at the east end of the nave, having been moved from the original baptistery in the base of the campanile. In the eastern bay of the nave are paired round-headed doorways opening to a confessional and sacristy on the north side and a similar doorway to the link block lobby and baptistery on the south side. The internal doors are timber with timber beading forming a checked pattern. The nave and narthex windows have cast angel and dove mullions similar to those on the exterior. The Stations of the Cross are rectangular relief panels glazed grey-green with gold haloes, attached to the nave walls beneath small gilt crosses.

The former presbytery, now a private house, attached to the south side of the vestry does not form part of this listing.