Catholic Church Of St Wilfrid

The Catholic Church of St. Wilfrid was built between 1846 and 1848 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, with later additions made between 1936 and 1937 by George Drysdale. Constructed from ashlar with a plain tile roof featuring fish scale tile bands, the church is designed in the Gothic style of around 1300. The building comprises a south-west tower, an 8-bay nave with a south aisle, a 2-bay chancel (added 1936-7), and a north-east vestry with a 1936-7 extension.

The south-west tower has three stages topped with a broach spire, featuring angle buttresses marked by roll and fillet mouldings. The tower's first and second stage windows have trefoiled arches with hood moulds terminating in heads. Belfry windows are pointed, incorporating two trefoiled ogee-arch lights with supermullions and a single reticulation, all under a continuous roll and fillet dripstone. A stair turret is located at the north-west angle. The south door is pointed, with a roll and fillet hood mould terminating in heads, accessed by a flight of stone steps. The nave features pointed windows with two trefoil-headed lights and cusped Y-tracery, each bay divided by a buttress, with diagonal buttresses to the west corners. The large west window has four trefoil-headed lights and Y-tracery, containing quatrefoils, under a roll and fillet hood mould. The pointed west door has three orders of roll and fillet mouldings and foliated capitals to the nook shafts. The south aisle’s south windows contain three lights of intersecting tracery, incorporating trefoils and quatrefoils. The east window of the south aisle has three lights with Geometric tracery. The chancel’s pointed windows have two trefoil-headed lights and reticulated tracery. The east window of the chancel is five lights, three with trefoiled heads and two with cinque-foiled heads, featuring intersecting tracery incorporating quatrefoils.

The original vestry, from 1846-8, has two bays with a central pointed door flanked by paired lights. The eastern extension, added in 1936-7, has a hipped roof and a north window of six lights, all with segmental pointed heads.

Inside, the church’s interior is austere. The south arcade has double chamfered pointed arches resting on cylindrical columns with foliated capitals. A high pointed chancel arch sits upon engaged semi-octagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The nave roof is scissor braced, and the chancel ceiling is panelled. Fittings include a good reredos with five pointed arches and Y-tracery. The church also contains notable stained glass windows, including works by Hardman, depicting Saint Bernard, Teresa of Avila, St. John, St. Francis, Saint Peter, Mary, and Andrew, as well as a crucifixion and a window dated 1936 in the south aisle.