Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St Egwin

Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St Egwin

A Roman Catholic parish church built in 1911-12 to designs by Sebastian Pugin Powell of Pugin and Pugin, in Middle Pointed Gothic or Decorated style.

The church is constructed of rock-faced local limestone with Bath stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. It is orientated east-west and comprises a nave with narrow aisles to north and south, transepts, a chancel with polygonal east end, north and south porches, and a tower at the south-west corner.

The exterior is characterised by high roofs and steep gables. A high plinth, cill bands and linked hood moulds run across the facades, with raised coped verges and varied elaborate tracery to the windows. The gabled west end has corner buttresses, two single-light windows to the ground floor and three tall two-light traceried windows above, arranged around a central canopied image niche containing a statue of the Virgin and Child. To the left, unified with the west front by the continuous plinth and cill band, is the side elevation of the north-west porch with two single-light openings. To the right, also with the continuous mouldings, is the short south-west tower in three stages, with corner buttresses, elaborate mouldings and a pierced parapet. The north side displays the gabled north porch with pointed-arched doorway. Moving eastwards are three high cross-gables of the aisle, each with a three-light traceried window separated by buttresses with offsets, followed by the projecting north transept. Its paired two-light traceried windows are separated by a buttress above which is a canopied image niche. The tall chancel to the east is polygonal, each of the five sides gabled with a two-light traceried window at the upper level. The chancel is flanked by lower gabled chapels to north and south, each with a circular window with tracery and cusping. The south side is similar, with a later single-storey sacristy in matching style and materials running along the length of the aisle and transept, featuring a shouldered arched entrance doorway and a large four-light stone-mullioned window.

The interior has plain plastered walls and Bath stone dressings. The floor is laid with woodblock and the roof is boarded with exposed scissor-braced trusses. The nave has tall four-bay arcades with high pointed arches springing from moulded capitals on octagonal shafts with high moulded bases featuring elaborate stops. The easternmost bays on either side open into the transepts. The narrow aisles have transverse arches articulating the bay structure. To the west is an openwork timber gallery, the central part canted out, carried on chamfered and stopped posts with a shallow arch between them and cusped arcading to either side. At the base of the tower is the baptistery with low metal gates bearing applied symbols; the floor is laid with red tile and the space has a compartmental timber ceiling. At the east end, the high pointed chancel arch is flanked by lower arches to the chapels and spanned by an elaborate rood beam. The sanctuary is five-sided with a forward altar. The wall-posts spring from short attached half-columns. Panelling to the lower parts is topped by an elaborate timber reredos in seven panels with a traceried arcade and pierced work above; the central panels open to reveal the tabernacle. The chapels each have a stone altar with carved decoration and timber triptych reredoses.

The fixtures and fittings are contemporary with the church unless otherwise noted. The font is octagonal with mouldings and cusped relief panels, on an octagonal shaft with moulded base. The cover is suspended above: octagonal timber with a coronet of metal bearing applied gilded foliate motifs, matching the communion rails which remain in situ. The pulpit is timber, openwork with tracery and cusping. The reredos in the sanctuary is elaborately carved timber with painted panels by Hardman. The chapels each have triptych reredoses, that to the north with gold-ground paintings and that to the south in a late Pre-Raphaelite style, possibly by Hardman or the Guild of Handicrafts. The stained glass to the sanctuary and in the east windows of the north and south chapels is by Paul Woodroffe, dating from circa 1924-5. The glass in the chapels is by Hardman, that to the north from 1928 and that to the south from 1931. A highly decorated rood beam and rood over the chancel arch replaces an earlier example over the altar. The nave benches have open backs and shaped ends.