Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Philip Neri

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Philip Neri

A Roman Catholic parish church built in 1877 to designs by Charles Alban Buckler for William Henry John North. The building is constructed of flint with limestone dressings and has plain tile roofs.

The church is rectangular on plan with an apsidal north end. For the purposes of description, all compass points used are liturgical rather than geographical, so that the main altar is described as being at the 'east' end of the church rather than compass north. The plan comprises a nave, apsidal sanctuary, north porch and south aisle. A sacristy with a gallery or family pew over projects from the south side of the sanctuary.

The church was built in the Early English Gothic style. The west elevation of the nave features three lancet windows with stepped buttresses at the corners, a small cinquefoil window above, and a gabled bellcote housing two bells. The north porch has a two-centred arched entrance with double boarded doors and, in the gable, a mandorla prepared for an unrealised carving. At the east end, the apsidal sanctuary is buttressed with four lancet windows, the central bay being blind. The south aisle has a lancet to the west and high-level trefoil lights to the south.

Inside, the nave and chancel form a single volume with an arch braced timber roof rising from corbels and ashlars. A three-bay south aisle arcade is supported by circular piers. The floors are of black and red tiles in the nave and aisle, with patterned encaustic tiles in the sanctuary. The marble and limestone Gothic high altar and reredos are crowned by a central tabernacle throne. In front of this stands a small altar with a faux marble finish, designed by local craftsman Simone Aresu around 2010. The lower half of the chancel walls were wainscoted by the 11th Baron in memory of his wife. The church bears numerous banners, armorial shields and brass memorials to members of the North family.

Three panels of 16th-century stained glass in Renaissance style are positioned in front of the lancets at the west end. These were brought from the Norths' house at Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire, possibly via Kirtling Hall, from which the glass was removed in 1904. More recent stained glass includes windows in the nave and chancel commemorating the golden wedding anniversary of Lord William and Lady Frederica North (1908), an Annunciation erected by Frederica North (1910), a window to Oratorian priest Fr Philip Gordon (died 1900, erected by Lord and Lady North), and a St Theresa window dedicated to Frederica (died 1915), erected by her children. The trefoil windows in the south aisle depict the Sacred Heart and Agnus Dei.

The benches in the nave appear to be original, supplemented by later benches at the west end and in the aisle. Near the holy water stoup by the north door is a photographic copy of a 1915 watercolour of the church interior, which shows communion rails and a framed picture occupying the now blank wall over the tabernacle throne at the centre of the apse.