Church Of St Catherine

Church of St Catherine, Wickford

This church was entirely rebuilt in 1875–6 by the London architect Henry Stone in Early English style, though old materials and a late medieval roof from the earlier building were incorporated. A choir vestry was added in 1934 by John Leech, then extended in 1957 by Wykeham Chancellor and Bragg. The building is constructed of mixed rubble with freestone dressings; the choir vestry is brick; the roofs are red clay tile.

The church consists of a nave, chancel, west end bellcote, northeast vestry and organ chamber, and south porch. A proposed north aisle was never built, though evidence of its intended arcade remains visible on the north exterior wall.

The south front is the principal elevation, presenting a picturesque composition of the nave, lower chancel, timber porch, and an unusually detailed bellcote. The chancel features diagonal buttresses, two trefoil-headed one-light windows, and a moulded doorway. The nave has two pairs of two-light lancets east of the porch and a single lancet west of it. The porch has cusped and pierced barge-boarding and stands on low stone side walls. At the west end of the nave, a square bellcote straddles the roof with open timber sides and a tier of quatrefoils beneath a splay-foot spire. On the north side, the arches of the unbuilt arcade are visible, each enclosing a single lancet window. The northeast vestry block has a pair of transverse gables forming an M-shape, with a 15th-century window in its north wall; a 1930s brick extension adjoins it on the east. The east window of the chancel has three trefoil-headed lights under a superordinate arch.

The interior is plastered and painted throughout. A broad chancel arch with paired demi-shaft responds with ring mouldings and moulded capitals separates the nave from the chancel. The chancel roof is reused work of around 1500, featuring two tiers of purlins, a ridge purlin, and moulded bosses at the intersection of the main timbers. A large plain round-headed arch at the west end of the nave supports the bellcote. The north wall of the nave contains a three-bay arcade of double chamfered arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals, designed for the unbuilt north aisle. The roof above is of arch-braced and king-post construction with braces running from the king-post to an upper collar.

The reredos is said to have been taken from All Saints, Margaret Street, London, a key Victorian Gothic Revival building designed by William Butterfield. The stone frame has unfortunately been painted over. It is decorated with stiff-leaf foliage and rises to a crested cornice, with three trefoil-headed panels within the frame containing inlaid stone panels featuring blind trefoil-headed arches and carved cornices. The font is probably 15th century, with an octagonal stone bowl on a flared octagonal base. The nave benches have shaped ends and unusually feature open backs. The east window glass is by A L Moore and Son, commemorating a death in 1919. A nave north window by Jones and Willis dates to 1936, and a nave south window with masonic emblems by Arthur S Walker of G Maile and Son dates to 1947.

A lychgate of 1949 was designed by Stanley Bragg.