Church Of Holy Cross And Attached Presbytery And School

The Church of Holy Cross, with its attached presbytery and school, was built between 1802 and 1803. The church was enlarged and given a new front in 1834, with a transept added in 1892. A school was added to the rear of the church in 1899. The building was commissioned for Dr Kirk and the front was designed by Joseph Potter (likely Jnr) of Lichfield. It is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings and has tile and slate roofs.

The church is in a Norman/Early English transitional style. It has a plain plinth, sill course, and cornice, with coped gables. A square angle turret with nook shafts, string course, top cornice, and pyramidal roof is situated on the left side of the front, alongside an offset clasping buttress. The front features a round-headed entrance with two orders, shafts, scallop capitals, zig-zag and roll mouldings, a plank door with enriched strap hinges, and a window of three pointed lights with shafts, enriched archivolts, a continuous hood mould, a trefoil above, and a gable cross. The left return has three windows with two single-chamfered lights. The transept has a coped gable with a cross, and its front windows feature four-light casements with two transoms above.

The presbytery is two stories high with a hipped slate roof. The front features painted brick and has two round-headed recesses with an entrance to the left in a plain doorcase with cornice and overlight, alongside a large window with a 12-pane sash. The first floor has windows with sills and stuccoed brick flat arches over 12-pane sashes. A small attached outhouse and a projecting first-floor conservatory are situated on the right return, along with a horizontally sliding sash window. A ground-floor window has a three-light transomed casement.

The interior features a panelled cambered ceiling, a round sanctuary arch with nook shafts and a zig-zag moulding, flanking round-headed niches, and a west gallery above the porch. The altar has detached shafts of coloured marble, and a low reredos with a gabled tabernacle. The church was built by Rev. Dr John Kirk (1760-1851), who played a significant role in the development of 19th-century Catholic churches.