Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

A Roman Catholic parish church of circular plan, constructed between 1962 and 1964 to designs by Desmond Williams.

The structure is of load-bearing brick and concrete, with walls in red-brown Fletton bricks. The roof is of steel trusses covered in copper and asphalt. The interior features ironwork and joinery of pine and laminated tropical hardwoods.

The church is organised around a central circular worship space with twelve projecting segments forming petal-like bays around its circumference. To the south-east, three full-height bays extend further outwards and are combined to form an entrance foyer with a baptistery and chapel at either side. Stairs from the foyer lead to a gallery which cantilevers into the worship space. An ambulatory runs around the perimeter of the worship space, cutting archways through brick piers to create a continuous path. Behind the altar, the ambulatory ramps upwards and connects with the sacristy and boiler room in a single-storey projection to the north of the church.

The exterior is divided into twelve bays separated by full-height stained glass recesses with rectilinear multi-coloured panes. Set back above these bays is a plain-glazed clerestory beneath a copper roof that rises gently to a needle-like spirelet topped with a Celtic cross. The principal entrance is at the centre of three projecting bays, accessed under three segmental concrete hoods leading to the foyer. Modern replacement doors are fitted to these hoods. Above the hoods is the coat of arms of Leo Parker, Bishop of Northampton at the time of the church's opening, flanked by narrow windows, with five further windows above. Most other bays have ten slit windows arranged across four rows. The three bays at the north-west are not separated by glazing and connect to a single-storey projection with plain windows and a doorway at the top of a small cantilevered flight of concrete steps.

The worship space consists of four polygonal ranks of pews in good quality pine with open backs and upholstered hinged kneelers. The bench ends follow the geometry of the benches, each with a cross in relief at the uppermost corner. The nave floor, which has developed large cracks, is original and laid in diamond patterns of grey and white tiles. Positioned axially opposite the entrance is a wide polygonal sanctuary with a communion rail of cruciform brass stanchions and a dark marble top. The sanctuary steps are terrazzo and lead to a large white marble altar inlaid with gold mosaic tiles reading ADORO TE DEVOTE. Iron openwork behind the altar supports a large crucifix and allows views of the only bay with stained glass in the narrow slit windows. The entire worship space is unified by a sound-absorbing ceiling of 600 aluminium pyramids in 18 shades of blue and white, radiating in concentric rings from a Greek cross in a boss at the centre. Williams' design for the ceiling evokes medieval fan vaulting, particularly that of the chapel at King's College, Cambridge. Within the ambulatory are two confessionals clad in tropical hardwood with plain interiors.

To the east of the narthex is a baptistery, now used as a shop, entered through a screen of iron openwork of the same design as the reredos and lectern, from which hang two carved doves. The baptistery retains a round font in fine white marble carved with a pattern of squares that echo the stepped square recess in the floor (now covered) and a suspended wooden square of the same proportions hanging from the ceiling. The font is supported on a square shaft with a mosaic figure of St John the Baptist on the front and water on the back.