Roman Catholic Church Of St Austin

The Roman Catholic Church of St Austin is a Catholic church built in 1862 by Edward Welby Pugin. It is constructed of brick featuring blue brick diapering and ashlar dressings, topped with a tile roof. The church has a plan that includes a five-bay nave with lean-to aisles, east chapels flanking a short chancel, a north-west turret, and a south-east sacristy.

The exterior features a canted east end with gabled two-light windows, while the chapels have two-light windows on the east and return sides. The aisles are adorned with three-light windows, and the clerestory includes spherical triangle windows with geometrical tracery. The west facade is highlighted by ashlar banding, brick diapering, and crosses. There is a pointed entrance on the centre left, featuring a moulded arch and paired plank doors with strap hinges. Above the entrance is a five-light west window with a small vesica window above it. The turret on the left is flush with the facade and shows signs of reconstruction, with a plain parapet, pointed louvred bell openings, and a short needle spire clad in metal. The gable is coped and topped with an iron cross.

Inside, the church has arch-braced roofs that are partially ceiled and partially painted. The chancel features richly coloured tiles below the sill level and narrow two-bay arcades leading to the chapels. The nave contains four-bay arcades supported by marble piers with simple capitals and moulded arches, along with a west gallery that houses an organ and an arcaded balcony front.

Notable fittings include a high altar with roundels between marble shafts, a richly decorated pulpit with ogee panels and relief scenes between canopied figures, and a similar desk with tracery panels and a deep cornice. The side altars feature relief panels and figures of the Virgin and Child and the Sacred Heart. The font is decorated with quatrefoils on the sides, depicting instruments of the Passion, and there is a 20th-century glazed screen beneath the gallery.

The stained glass includes 19th and 20th-century glass in the north, with east windows by Hardman. The west window features 16th-century Flemish glass, which is believed to have been installed in the earlier church built in 1818, now demolished, by Lord Stafford.