Catholic Cathedral Church of St Chad

Catholic Cathedral Church of St Chad

A cathedral church built between 1839 and 1841 from designs by A W Pugin. The building incorporates 19th and 20th century alterations and additions by E W Pugin and Sebastien Pugin Powell, with fittings by John Hardman and Co.

The cathedral is orientated on a northwest-southeast axis. Its plan consists of an aisled nave with shallow transepts and a short apsidal chancel, flanked by a Lady Chapel and sacristies, with a crypt below. The church is constructed of brick laid in Flemish bond with Bath stone dressings and slate roofs.

The south-east front is symmetrical, dominated by two towers topped with broach spires and paired lancet windows. The south tower contains a ring of five bells, all recast by Taylors of Loughborough in 1940. The central main entrance features an arched doorway divided by a stone pier. The arch-head contains figures of the Virgin and Child with censing angels beneath a carved tympanum, flanked by two statues of saints. Above this is an arched six-light window with circular foiled tracery, and in the gable above is a triangular window with trefoils. The towers are bordered with pier buttresses and feature paired windows below circular tracery, with integral niches containing statues of English saints. The apsidal St Edward's chapel projects to the south-west, surrounded by stone steps and decorated with carved heraldry within its south-west wall. The west elevation contains the crypt entrance, which features Tudor arched doorways and leaded windows within stone surrounds and a carved figure to the south corner. The former baptistery has a two-light arched window, while the north transept features a tall six-light window, both with foiled tracery. The north-west elevation takes advantage of the sloping site, with a three-sided apse featuring tall two-light windows, a Lady Chapel to the west and sacristies to the east, all set above ground level crypt. The east elevation features slender two-light windows with foiled tracery and pier buttresses. Adjoining the east side are the Archbishop's House, cathedral bookshop and diocese offices, which are not part of this assessment.

Internally, between the nave and aisles is an arcade of five bays with tall slender clustered shafts, a sixth taller and broader bay marking the crossing. The steeply pitched roof covering both nave and aisles is supported on queen post trusses with curved braces rising from capitals. The chancel roof has moulded rafters supported by curved brackets and a ridge purlin, with the ceiling between slender purlins and rafters painted with colourful heraldic motifs. The aisle and chancel windows are all of two lights. The stained glass is largely by the Hardman firm, ranging in date from 1848 to 1928.

The chancel is framed with gold-painted clustered shafts with foliage capitals. A W Pugin's high altar of 1841 features riddel posts and an elaborately carved gable with a cusped arch enclosing the relic chest of St Chad, with a crowning spire added in 1933 by Gerald Hardman. Below this is a tabernacle of 1878 by J. H. Powell. The oak choir stalls and Pugin's oak archbishop's throne incorporate late medieval carved woodwork with carved figures and linenfold panelling. The 19th-style encaustic tile floors of the sanctuary were added around 1992, as was the stone forward altar, pierced with cusped openings. The stained glass was made by William Warrington to Pugin's designs.

The Lady Chapel to the left of the chancel features an altar by Pugin of 1841, carved with scenes of the Presentation in the Temple, Nativity and Adoration of the Magi, and a contemporary reredos carved with the Virgin and Child flanked by the Annunciation and Visitation. The chapel has a screen and parclose screen by Pugin, and contains a 15th-century statue of the Virgin and Child given by Pugin. A fibreglass statue of St Joseph by Michael Clarke dates from 1969.

In the west transept stands Pugin's canopied Bath stone monument to Bishop Walsh, made by Myers, and a ledger brass to John Bernard Hardman (1843-1903). The stained glass in the former baptistery was designed by Pugin and made by William Wailes. The St Edward's chapel at the south-west corner contains an altar of 1933 by Gerald Hardman.

Within the nave is a hexagonal oak pulpit against the west crossing pier, incorporating statuettes of the Doctors of the Church. It was made by Pugin from one dating to around 1520, probably from St Gertrude's Abbey, Leuven, given by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1841. Pugin's octagonal font is in the west aisle, carved with the symbols of the evangelists. On one of the pillars of the east arcade is a 19th-century wooden statue of St Chad holding a model of Lichfield Cathedral. In the east aisle is a war memorial of 1921 by Gerald Hardman, featuring a relief of the Deposition and a memorial tablet to Archbishop Williams (1877-1946) by G B Cox. The Stations of the Cross along both aisles are by Albrecht Franz Lieven de Vriendt of Antwerp, dated 1875. The pews of Japanese oak date from 1940 and were designed by G B Cox. At the south end of the nave, the organ has a painted Gothic case by David Graebe.

A staircase from the west aisle descends to the crypt, which includes a chapel and the Hardman Chantry, the latter with painted decoration of 1877, restored around 1998. Monuments in the crypt include that to Archbishop Ullathorne by Peter Paul Pugin, 1890, featuring a reclining effigy in episcopal vestments under a four-centred canopy.