Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, including boundary walls and railings

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes

This Roman Catholic parish church, including boundary walls and railings, was built between 1928 and 1934. It was designed by George Bernard Cox of the Birmingham firm Harrison and Cox in the French-Gothic style.

The building has a reinforced-concrete superstructure faced with white-granite stone and a pitched Welsh-slate roof. The foundations employ a concrete raft containing over 1,500 tons of concrete and 150 tons of steel rods, with a series of crypts built with adjustable jacks. The plan is cruciform, with the sanctuary at the east end and the nave to the west.

Exterior

The western entrance features a flat-roof single-storey porch with triple-pointed arches on stone pairs. Above it is a Marian inscription and carved Mary Regina symbol. Within the porch is a central double-leaf carved-timber entrance door. The porch is flanked by single-storey bays: the former baptistery on the left and a side porch on the right, each with single-lancet windows. Above the projecting porch rises the west gable end with a central recessed triple-moulded pointed arch with jamb shafts. Within the arch is a three-light tracery window with a rose window above. A niche in the gable contains a statue of Our Lady, and the gable is topped by a stone cross and flanked by a pair of polygonal turrets with lancet openings and copper roofs.

Each side of the nave is flanked by two projecting flat-roof single-storey polygonal aisle chapels with single-lancet windows. Above each chapel is a pair of cusped lancets forming the nave clerestory. The north and south transepts both have single-bay gable ends with a central triple-lancet and rose window, and are flanked by polygonal turrets. The return walls of each transept contain paired lancets. The chancel end has paired lancets and a rose window. Between the east end and the south transept sits a bell turret and sacristy range. The bell turret, which does not contain a bell, is topped by a pyramidal roof with louvered openings. The sacristy is a single-storey pavilion with entrances on the south and east elevations, with a two-storey tower behind containing the former organ gallery on the second floor. The windows in this range combine square-headed mullions and single lancets.

Interior

The interior has a geometric-patterned polychromatic stone floor, plain-plastered walls, and a rib-vaulted ceiling supported by columns with Corinthian capitals. The vault ribbing and a frieze of religious text running around the whole interior are picked out in Marian blue. The timber-and-painted-glass internal entrance porch stands in the middle of the west end, with a side door to the left and the former baptistery with stained glass to the right. The ceramic Stations of the Cross lining the nave are by Philip Lindsey Clark. The pews are not original.

The aisles have four side chapels with stained-glass windows and are separated from the nave by a low triple-arch arcade supported by chamfered pillars. Three stone steps lead up to the chancel. The high altar sits under a painted and gilded Gothic baldacchino on marble shafts. A later altar table at the front of the chancel was added as part of late 20th-century reordering and is flanked by a later timber pulpit and a font moved from the baptistery chapel at the west end. The chancel contains four pairs of stained-glass windows (two added in the 1960s, the other two of unknown date), with a row of blind pointed-arch arcading below. The side chapels and Lady Chapel in the south transept contain further marble and timber altars. The south-east corner contains the sacristy and vestry with timber panelling and decorative in-built storage and vestment cupboards. A stone spiral staircase leads to the former organ gallery, which has been blocked off from the main church.

Boundary Features

A low ashlar-stone wall topped by decorative painted iron railings runs parallel to the main road. Two sets of large entrance gates decorated with religious symbols are located at the east and west ends of the church. Two further smaller pedestrian gates are located further to the east, and at the far east end is a vehicular entrance, the gates of which have been removed.