Catholic Church And Presbytery Attached

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.