Church of St Francis of Assisi is a Grade II listed building in the Sandwell local planning authority area, England. First listed on 24 January 1992. Church.
Church of St Francis of Assisi
- WRENN ID
- first-attic-myrtle
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Sandwell
- Constituency
- Tipton and Wednesbury MP: Antonia Bance (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 24 January 1992
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Francis of Assisi, Freeman Road
- OS grid reference
- SP 006 949
- Coordinates
- 52.55252, -1.99216
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Francis of Assisi is an Anglican church built between 1938 and 1941 by W. A. Harvey and H. G. Wicks. It is constructed from pink sandstone ashlar with pantile and lead roofs. The church is planned with a 7-bay nave, low north and south aisles with porches on the west bays, a choir, a tower over the sanctuary, and an apse. A vestry with an organ chamber above is situated south of the choir, and a Lady Chapel is located on the north side of the north aisle. The architectural style is Early Christian basilican.
The nave and aisles have moulded stone eaves cornices. The low aisles allow for tall round-headed clerestory windows, which are paired at the east end and on the canted west end. The Lady Chapel has a flat roof, and the vestry is canted with a three-light round arch window and small lights under the eaves. The north-west and south-west porches have carved surrounds depicting stylised figures of the twelve Apostles and Christ. The north-east porch features carvings of leaves and flowers. The fine east tower has a tented lead roof with a figure of St Francis of Assisi on the ridge, three and five-light bell openings, integral buttresses on the east corners, and a round apse at the east end with round-headed windows.
Inside, the walls are plastered. There are low, unmoulded plaster round arch arcades with painted intrados, supported by octagonal limestone piers and capitals with volutes. The choir features a distyle gallery with three round arches within a large arch, and a small gallery in the corner with an ogee corbel leading to the tower stairs. The sanctuary has double sedilia with engaged columns and round plastered arches, and round arch clerestory windows in the ceiling cove, with similar windows in the apse. There is a low ashlar screen with tall flanking piers surmounted by kneeling figures, and a crucifix is suspended from the choir roof. The nave and choir have painted roofs, with king-post trusses and curved struts supported on painted corbels. Benches, including choir stalls, remain intact. A limestone font has large moulded ribs that splay out at the top, and the Lady Chapel altar has large consoles.
Local climate
Church of St Francis of Assisi receives an average of 800 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 56% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 75% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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