Church Of The Holy Ascension

The Church of the Holy Ascension is a church dating to 1888, designed by Julius Alfred Chatwin. It is constructed of rock-faced limestone with limestone dressings, and has tile roofs with coped gables. The church includes an aisled nave, a chancel, a south chapel and a north organ chamber, a south porch, and a west tower. Built in the Early English style, it presents a symmetrical design with 4 bays to the nave and 2 bays to the chancel.

The south door features shafts and a moulded arch with head stops. The timber porch, set on a stone base, has glazed tracery and double-leaf doors. The chancel has diagonal buttresses, and an east window of three stepped lancets. The north and south sides of the chancel have trefoiled east lancets. The low north organ chamber and south chapel have lean-to roofs. Single windows with four small trefoiled lancets are located on the sides. The aisles have three-light windows with Geometrical bar tracery and hood moulds, and the tower has a moulded plinth, a stair turret on the north side, and a three-light west window. Crenellations and a gargoyle top the tower.

Inside, the ashlar walls have contrasting lighter dressings. The chancel east window has detached shafts and moulded arches, and the lancets have rere-arches with hood moulds and stops. Paired arches lead to the south chapel, featuring an octagonal pier, responds, and a blank super-arch with a quatrefoil bearing a coat of arms. The organ resides within an archway to the north. The pair of sedilia have a moulded frame with trefoils and half-trefoils, while the piscina is similarly framed with an inner trefoiled round arch. A wagon roof spans the nave. The fine chancel arch features inner and outer shafts, two roll mouldings, a hood mould, and carved head stops. A low stone screen wall, incorporating a pulpit, has a moulded plinth and ballflower ornament. The octagonal pulpit has an upper section of oak with paired trefoiled lancets, carved and traceried panels, and a carved frieze. The nave arcade has alternating octagonal and round piers, moulded bases and capitals, and arches of two chamfered orders with hood moulds and head stops. The tower arch is of three chamfered orders, without imposts. The south chapel’s stone rib-vaulted ceiling has carved basses, while the aisles have lean-to roofs supported by moulded polygonal corbels. The church contains an unusual alabaster font depicting a lifesize kneeling angel holding a lobed bowl. The south chapel has a good quality wrought iron screen and gates. Stained glass is present in the east and west windows, with a north aisle window dated 1900. The church represents a fine and completely unaltered example of late 19th century church design. Julius Alfred Chatwin (1829-1907) was a pupil of Sir Charles Barry, and a notable Birmingham architect.