Church Of St Agatha

The Church of St Agatha, built between 1899 and 1901, is an exceptionally fine and original example of a church designed by W E Bidlake. It is constructed of fine quality red brick with stone dressings and is notable for its Perpendicular style, freely reinterpreted within an Arts and Crafts idiom, and high standard of workmanship. The church features aisles and a clerestory. The west front is distinguished by vestibule porches to the aisles, which flank a magnificent and lofty tower. At the foot of the tower is a low baptistry apse. The tower has slender octagonal corner turrets with upper stages of red and white chequerwork, topped by openwork turret/pinnacles and lofty original wrought iron finials. The stair turret on the south face also has an imaginatively designed top stage and is carefully proportioned to accentuate the scale of the tower and the powerful belfry openings. Above the baptistry is a fine sculptured frame to the west tower window, and inventive sculptural and carved decoration is found on the cambered stone arches and jambs of the flanking vestibule doorways. The Gothic fenestration to the aisles and clerestory is more conventional. The interior, restored following war damage and a fire in 1957, is a remarkably sophisticated original conception, faced in pale buff brick blending with the stone dressings. The arcade hood moulds display Bidlake's characteristic detailing, with a scrolled curve carved over the vestigial ribs of the piers, which are then divided to accommodate the large clerestory windows, culminating in richly and freely carved foliage corbels. The timber ribs of the roof continue the lines of the masonry. The chancel's pointed barrel vault is supported by stone arches springing from very richly carved corbels. The sophistication of the carving and the quality of the moulded detailing are consistent throughout the building. Bidlake’s original furnishings were destroyed in the 1957 fire.