Catholic Church and Presbytery Attached is a Grade II listed building in the East Hertfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 July 1984. Church, presbytery.

Catholic Church and Presbytery Attached

WRENN ID
high-parapet-owl
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
East Hertfordshire
Constituency
North East Hertfordshire MP: Chris Hinchliff (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
6 July 1984
Type
Church, presbytery
Address
Catholic Church and Presbytery Attached, Station Road, Buntingford
OS grid reference
TL 363 292
Coordinates
51.94496, -0.01781
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Benson Memorial Catholic Church, dedicated to St Richard of Chichester, and the attached presbytery were built in 1915 by Arthur Young, with a later south extension to the presbytery. The church features uncoursed knapped flint with limestone dressings and steep red tiled roofs. It is designed in the Decorated style, consisting of a nave, a lower chancel, a northeast Lady Chapel, a west tower with a spire, a north porch, and a two-storey presbytery linked to the south side facing east, which includes a single-storey south extension.

The tower is crenellated and topped with a copper spike and vane, and it has four-centred arched two-light bell openings with a band at sill level, diagonal west buttresses, and a tall statue of a saint holding a spade on the northeast corner of the tower. The church also features decorative stone tracery windows and diagonal buttresses.

Inside, there is a waggon roof with moulded battens, carved bosses, and cresting on the wallplate, along with an octagonal font with a fluted shaft. The presbytery has a low gabled link to the southeast, constructed of similar materials, with an asymmetrical front. The ground floor features a long band of trefoil-headed stone windows under a hoodmould, with four lights to the left and five lights to the right of an arched doorway that has quartrefoil carved spandrels. The upper section includes three two-light and three-light chamfered stone windows, with sills connected by a band.

Local climate

Catholic Church and Presbytery Attached sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 80% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 61% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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