Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Teresa, and two pairs of gatepiers

Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Teresa, and two pairs of gatepiers

A Roman Catholic parish church built between 1938 and 1942 to designs by George Bernard Cox (1886–1978) of the practice Harrison and Cox, with two pairs of contemporary gate piers.

The church is constructed of pale brown brick with concrete dressings and plain tile roofs. It follows a cruciform plan, with a narthex flanked by an apsidal baptistery and stair wing, both with confessionals attached to the east. The main body consists of a five-bay nave with side aisles, transepts, a crossing tower, and a square-ended chancel.

The exterior adopts a Byzantino-Romanesque style. The central double-leaf west door is flanked by Corinthian columns and topped by a semi-circular tympanum, plain but probably originally intended to receive mosaic decoration. The door is inscribed SSMO CORDI JESU ET S TERESIAE. It is flanked by windows of two round-headed lights with central colonettes. The outer bays of the narthex are lower with semi-circular ends, each containing a side door in a deeply chamfered opening with brick architrave, corresponding to the two aisles. Above each are paired single lights beneath the eaves of pitched roofs. Above the main door at gallery level is a circular window with deeply-moulded surround and a ventilator above in the central gable. Along the long elevations, blind panels with corbel tables alternate with semi-circular-headed lancet windows to the clerestory. The flat-roofed aisles feature shorter paired windows of similar design. A stack rises at the eaves on the south side of the nave. The large square-topped crossing tower has round-headed bell chamber lights: seven to both east and west sides, and five to each of the north and south sides. The gabled transepts each contain a window of three semi-circular-headed lancets, as do the north and south sides of the sanctuary. The rear wall of the sanctuary at the east end is blank. The cast-iron rainwater goods feature shaped heads with rope-twist and floral decoration.

Internally, the west entrances lead into the narthex, which is separated from the main church body by a wall with central double doors in a moulded stone surround, flanked by windows of two semi-circular-headed lights in brick surrounds with moulded stone stoups. To the north, iron gates with cusped detailing open onto the apsidal former baptistery with a marble floor. The stairs to the gallery are located at the southern end within the curved end of the range. The floor contains a central mosaic roundel bearing the coat of arms of Bishop Griffin. The interior walls were originally left plain to receive mosaic decoration but were plastered and painted in the 1970s. The rather low nave arcades comprise round-headed arches springing from foliated imposts within taller round-headed recesses that also contain the clerestory windows. Above the narthex sits the west gallery with corbel table. The church has an open timber roof over the nave with panelled tie beams on moulded corbels carrying king posts and queen struts, the tie beams carried on moulded stone corbels with scrolls. The nave floor is laid with bold geometric polychrome stone. The south aisle contains a series of narrow semi-circular-headed doorways with panelled timber doors to confessionals. The transepts each house a chapel: the Lady Chapel to the north and St Teresa to the south, both featuring polychrome marble altars within apsidal recesses. The crossing has tall round-headed arches and a panelled wooden ceiling. The sanctuary is paved with polychrome marble in geometric patterns. The coloured marble altar, with detached shafts and foliate capitals to either side, has been brought forward, with the former gradine retained and adapted as a tabernacle throne.

The principal fittings and furnishings date from the construction period unless otherwise noted. The font, now positioned at the west end of the nave (moved from the baptistery), is white marble, tapering slightly to a narrower shaft with an octagonal cover. The pulpit is constructed from yellowish marble blocks used as ashlar to create a polygonal structure on a narrower plinth with moulded timber coping. The Stations of the Cross are set into the aisle walls in concave-moulded frames as opus sectile mosaic on gold grounds. The stained glass includes one window in the south wall of the sanctuary by Hardman, dedicated to Fr Wheatley, the first resident priest (died 1882), brought from the earlier church following its demolition in 1987. The three lancets in the north transept depict the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary and were probably designed by Gilbert E Sheedy around 1950. Sheedy was probably also responsible for the ten clerestory windows depicting the Ten Commandments. The south transept contains an unusual Gothic war memorial in oak with gilded details, names of the fallen in illuminated script and a painted depiction of the Sudarium of St Veronica above. The church retains its bronze light fittings. Throughout the church, seating comprises carved oak benches with panelled backs and moulded and scrolled ends, contemporary with construction.

Two pairs of gatepiers stand roadside, contemporary with the church, constructed of matching brick with half-round stone caps and crosses in relief to either side of the semi-circular heads.