Church Of St Luke

Church of St Luke

A parish church built in 1867-8 by architect F Preedy, located on the east side of Evesham Road in Redditch. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a machine-tiled roof featuring gable-end parapets.

The church follows a Romanesque style with a three-bay nave and lean-to aisle, a south porch, west entrance and bell turret, together with a three-bay apsidal chancel and north vestry.

The exterior displays rich Romanesque detailing throughout. The nave features a chamfered plinth and sill string stepped at the sides, with pilaster buttresses at bay divisions that are clasped at the ends. The west front has gabled buttresses with Saltire crosses carved beneath the gables and corner rebates containing slender colonnettes. The west entrance is set in a shallow gabled projection and is formed by a round archway of two orders supported on columns with foliated capitals. The capitals continue as a foliated band to columns in the outer corner rebates. The entrance is flanked by single-light windows with hood moulds returning as strings to the buttresses. Above the entrance, a chevron moulding continues around the buttresses and sits beneath a large wheel window with a hood mould. A 2-light opening with a pointed head is positioned in the gable apex with a sill string on corbels carved with Saltire crosses. Two-light windows at the west end of the aisles have hood moulds returning as strings and enclose a rosette relief above the centre of each window. A 2-light window appears at the east end of the south aisle. All windows in the west elevation have round arches supported on columns with foliated or trumpet-scalloped capitals, as does the south-east aisle window.

The north and south elevations feature single-light round-headed windows with hood moulds, one to each bay, except for the first and third bays from the east end in the north elevation and the second bay from the east end in the south elevation, which each have a pair of windows.

The south porch is gabled with a cross finial. Its round archway is moulded with chevron detail and is supported on columns with trumpet-scalloped capitals and a hood mould returning to the corners. Narrow lights appear in each side elevation.

The bell turret is gabled with a chevron-moulded archway on columns with responds all bearing cushion capitals. It contains a single bell.

The chancel has pilaster buttresses at bay divisions with colonnettes in corner rebates, and large gabled buttresses at the centre of the side elevations with similar detail. A corbel table at eaves level is carved with animal heads and musical instruments. Windows throughout the chancel have round arches on columns with variously carved capitals.

The vestry is gabled with three bays. The east elevation has three pairs of rectangular lights, while the west elevation features a door and rectangular light with steps down to a basement.

The interior reveals four-bay pointed nave arcades of two chamfered orders resting on alternating octagonal and circular columns with foliated capitals. A round-headed chancel arch with ornate moulding has responds with foliated capitals and jambs containing colonnettes with trumpet-scalloped capitals. The nave is roofed with a king-post structure.

The chancel features a tunnel vault with vaulting shafts, all elaborately and richly painted. Brightly coloured paintwork extends throughout the chancel, around windows, on mouldings, sill strings and other surfaces. A painted reredos with a painted arcade and figures of the apostles is prominent. The piscina and aumbry are similarly treated with ornate moulding, while the two-bay sedilia has received simpler treatment. The stone altar table is enriched with marble columns in the corner rebates and mosaic panels. The square font and three-sided stone pulpit similarly feature marble columns attached to their bases with much carved decoration above.

The building represents one of Preedy's more unusual and elaborately detailed designs, with the plan and decoration of the chancel being particularly noteworthy.