Church Of St Joseph (Roman Catholic)

The Church of St Joseph is a Roman Catholic church located on Thimble Mill Lane in Birmingham, originally built as a mortuary chapel in 1850 and significantly enlarged in 1872. It was restored in 1945. The building's design reflects a blend of architectural styles and periods, with contributions from Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, his son Edward Welby Pugin, and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

The church is constructed primarily of ashlar, with later additions in red brick with stone dressings. Slate roofs with coped gable ends complete the exterior. The original chapel, now the chancel and Lady Chapel, features three-light decorated style east windows with geometric and reticulated tracery, and two two-light north windows with similar detailing. Buttresses incorporate set-offs, and the eaves are moulded, topped with gable copings and an apex cross. The 1872 enlargement includes a red brick nave with tall south windows featuring foiled lights above paired lancets. The west end is distinguished by a gabled bellcote and porch featuring carved details, statues in niches, and lancet windows. A mortuary chapel to the north has a small, foiled light above three lancets. A north aisle contains four three-light windows with depressed, two-centred arches. Attached to the north side is a two-story presbytery, constructed of red brick with stone dressings and gable crosses, featuring mainly sash windows with stone relieving arches above the first-floor windows.

The interior showcases a two-bay arcade between the chancel and Lady Chapel, characterized by compressed foliated capitals and shafts. A five-bay north arcade features unusual reeded piers, which transition into scalloped capitals. Painted timber roofs are present throughout, with bracings on small corbels in the nave and north aisle. The nave roof was redesigned by Giles Gilbert Scott. Notable furnishings include a Lady Chapel altar mensa by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, a reredos by Giles Gilbert Scott (circa 1950), a high altar with a wooden frontal (circa 1850), a wood and gilt reredos from 1902, and a tabernacle with chased silver doors made circa 1900 in the Birmingham Arts and Crafts style. An Edward Welby Pugin pulpit is also present, along with a stone chancel east window designed by Pugin/Hardman (circa 1850). The church also contains good quality Stations of the Cross in a late Gothic German style, benches, and decorative schemes by Giles Scott.

The church’s origins are linked to the establishment of a separate Catholic cemetery in Nechells, due to financial difficulties. The cemetery’s expansion, partially funded by Birmingham Town Council, led to the construction of the mortuary chapel, which initially served to house coffins overnight, according to Catholic burial practices.