Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Hubert

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Hubert

A Roman Catholic parish church built in 1934, designed by George Drysdale in an Early-Christian basilican style and constructed by Whittall & Son of Birmingham.

The church is built of narrow brown and purple bricks laid in English Garden Wall bond to decorative effect, with brick and sandstone dressings. The roof is covered in green slate tiles and the windows have leaded lights.

The building is orientated on its ritual compass points, with an apsidal sanctuary at the ritual east end. The plan comprises a wide nave flanked by passage aisles with side chapels. The narthex with organ gallery above is positioned at the west end, with a side chapel and former baptistery to either side. A campanile stands at the south-east corner.

The gabled west elevation is flanked by single-storey bays with hipped roofs. The central entrance is recessed within a tall round-headed brick arch with a stone keystone carved with cross keys. The stone square-headed doorway has a roundel to each spandrel containing a floral motif, and an entablature above comprising a moulded cornice supported on Doric-style corbels. Above the doorway is a Della Robbia-style majolica representation of the Virgin and Child, with a later mosaic surround designed by Hardman & Co and installed by P Cecconi and Son of Birmingham. Above the archway are four Art-Deco stone bas-reliefs depicting the emblems of the four Evangelists and the Agnus Dei. A stone plat band inscribed with the words 'FIDES SPES CARITAS' (Faith, Hope, Charity) sits above the archway. This plat band, which continues around the rest of the church as a moulded cornice, is topped by four round-arched windows. The tympanum contains a recessed brick-tile circle with a brick quadrate cross at its centre. The north and south elevations have blind lean-to aisles and round-arched clerestory windows to the nave. A set-forward bay to the east end of the north aisle features full-height round-arched windows and a hipped roof. The east elevation is defined by the full-height apsidal sanctuary with windows to its lower section. The campanile has a huge recessed cross, painted white, on two of its faces. Towards its base is a stone sculpture of the symbol of St Hubert: a kneeling stag with a crucifix between its antlers.

The interior comprises a brick narthex accessed from the west entrance. At the north end is a brick semi-circular archway leading to the staircase to the organ gallery above. At the south end is a round window set within a semi-circular arched recess with the foundation stone beneath. The narthex is separated from the nave by a timber and plastered screen with five glazed archways, surmounted by the panelled organ gallery. Either side of the narthex are the former baptistery and side chapel, each with a timber altar surmounted by an aedicule. The nave has a four-bay arcade of wide semi-circular arches with square piers faced in brown Hornton stone, carefully detailed with decorative carving including one pier with a relief carving of a figure supported on a corbel. Above the arcades are round-arched clerestory windows and a timber roof of tie-beam construction with queen posts, struts and a collar. The north and south passage aisles contain carved Stations of the Cross set into shallow recesses and arched openings to confessionals. The side chapels at the east end of the aisles have stone altars set within arched-stone recesses. The east end of the church is faced in Hornton stone to the height of the arcade piers. The tall semi-circular chancel arch, with a corresponding sanctuary arch behind, has circular openings to its spandrels. At the base of the chancel arch are octagonal pulpits on square bases, approached by Caernarvon-arched openings from the chancel. The font, re-sited adjacent to the south pulpit, is also of Hornton stone. The stone altar has a tall stone reredos with a timber canopy. Either side of the altar are curved arcade walls with pairs of columns supporting the wall above, which on its west face bears a Latin inscription. Behind the sanctuary is an ambulatory.

The presbytery and covered walkway between the presbytery and the north aisle are not included in the listing.