Roman Catholic Church Of St Joseph And Attached Presbytery

Roman Catholic Church of St Joseph and Attached Presbytery

A Roman Catholic church and attached presbytery built in 1854, designed by Myers and constructed in coursed squared ironstone. The church is built in the Gothic Revival style.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, south chapel and north-west porch tower. The concrete tile roofs are replaced by slate on the tower and presbytery; gable parapets are coped with kneelers and decorated crosses throughout.

The chancel is a single bay with diagonal buttresses featuring two offsets. Its east window comprises three stepped lancets, and the north window has paired lancets. A small polygonal projection rises in the north-west angle. The nave spans four bays and is buttressed with offsets to match the chancel. Three windows punctuate each the north and south sides, all with chamfered lancets. The west front has a splayed plinth and south diagonal buttress. Its principal window contains three stepped lancets with a continuous hood mould and splayed sill course. The west door sits within the tower, featuring a deep splayed arch and simple hood mould, opening through double-leaf doors.

The tower rises in two stages with a splayed plinth and angle buttresses with two offsets. Above the door is a lancet with hood mould. The north side carries a single lancet, and a square projection rises in the north-east angle. The second stage is deeply splayed. The west front displays two lancets with a clock positioned above and between them; other sides have single lancets. A moulded cornice runs across, taken up as an arch above the clock. The tower is crowned with a steep bell-cast pyramidal roof with lead flashing and a decorated iron cross.

The south-east chapel has an east window of paired lancets and a single south lancet.

Interior: Throughout the church, arches feature two chamfered orders without imposts. The chancel includes an arch to the chapel, a segmental-pointed arch, and a stairway to the pulpit. A scissor-braced roof spans the chancel. The nave also has a scissor-braced roof with wall posts and corbels. The chapel occupies two bays divided by an arch, with coupled rafter roofs running east-west in the sanctuary but north-south in the outer bay.

Fittings include a finely carved and moulded Early English style reredos and altar, decorated with two reliefs and stiff-leaf capitals; the altar itself features four shafts. The pulpit occupies the north-east corner of the nave, accessed from the chancel. It is constructed in stone as three sides of an octagon, each panelled with a quatrefoil containing subsidiary cusps. The font is moulded plaster with a compound shaft and moulded frieze. A piscina with trefoiled lancet and moulded bowl is also present. The church retains a complete set of stained glass windows attributed to Hardman.

The presbytery is attached to the south side of the church. It is constructed on a T-plan with a cross wing on the right. Two storeys high with a two-window range, it features a lean-to porch in the angle with a chamfered cambered arched doorway and a plank door with decorative iron hinges. The wing displays paired lancets on the ground floor and paired shouldered arched lights with a cambered relieving arch on the first floor; a blind trefoil appears in its gable. The main range carries a large external stack with four offsets and a large, deep blind arch; two chamfered squared shafts with moulded cornices are set within it, with a lancet to the left on the first floor. The right return side has a lateral stack with a rebuilt brick shaft, and a two-storey lean-to wing with two-light windows. A lean-to range extends to the rear, flush with the front.

The church was founded by Joseph Knight. Myers was the builder for A.W.N. Pugin, though Pevsner questions whether Myers served as the architect.