Church of St Joseph, boundary wall and gate piers

This Roman Catholic parish church was built in 1908, with extensions added between 1909 and 1910 and again between 1933 and 1935, all designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Materials

The main church roof is covered with slate, while the adjoining structures generally have plain tile roofs. The walls are constructed of red brick with stone dressings, as are the boundary wall and gate piers.

Plan and Location

The church and attached chapel form an L-shaped plan and stand on the south side of Cromer Road, near the corner with Cremer's Drift. All directional references below follow liturgical orientation rather than geographical compass points, meaning the main altar is described as being at the 'east' end of the church, though this is actually compass north.

Exterior

The church comprises a tall double-height rectangular nave with single-storey aisles to the north and south sides. A confessional projects from the south aisle, a porch extends from the west end, and a chapel and organ chamber project from the north side. A perpendicular rectangular-plan chapel extends south from the chancel. The nave and chancel roof is shallow-pitched and slate-covered, concealed behind high parapets and gabled at both ends with carved-stone cross finials. The single-storey projections have steeply sloped plain-tile roofs, except for the west porch which is flat-roofed. The brick walls employ a distinctive pattern of five courses laid in stretcher bond alternating with two courses in header bond. The lower walls feature a three-stepped plinth with stone coping on the lowest step and brick coping on the upper steps.

The east gable contains a high circular window with cinquefoil tracery surrounded by six mouchettes. Below the window, two stone shields bear the letters 'IHS' and 'XPI' carved in relief. The north and south elevations each have three large square-headed windows in brick and stone surrounds, with stone tracery forming two trefoil-headed lights with four mouchettes above. A shallow brick pilaster between the second and third windows marks where the 1910 building meets the 1935 western extension.

The south aisle has a small confessional projection at the junction between the 1910 church and 1935 extension, with a single window on each of its east and west elevations in stone surrounds with scalloped lintels. Near the east end of the south aisle, a flat-arched timber-boarded door has a chamfered stone surround with two inflex arches to the lintel and chamfered jambs.

The west porch, added in 1935, spans the width of the nave and has an embattled parapet. Its main entrance on the north elevation features a pointed arch with chamfered stone surround and double-chamfered brick jambs, containing double timber-boarded doors. Three windows on the west elevation have mullioned stone surrounds and scalloped stone lintels, arranged in a 1:4:1 grouping. Above the porch is a tall two-light west window with a traceried equilateral arch; protective glazing was added to the exterior in the early 21st century.

On the north elevation, an organ chamber built in 1910 projects from the north side of the chancel. It has a steeply pitched plain-tiled roof with a gabled bellcote and two small windows in stone surrounds with scalloped lintels. The single-storey chapel projecting from the north aisle was built in 1935, replacing the 1910 entrance. Dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham, it has a steeply pitched plain-tiled roof gabled to the north, and a small three-light window on each of its east and west elevations in stone surrounds with scalloped stone lintels.

A perpendicular rectangular-plan single-storey chapel built in 1908 projects south from the east side of the chancel. It has a steeply-sloped pitched plain-tiled roof, red brick walls with stone dressings, and shallow stepped buttresses. Its east and west elevations each contain two traceried windows with two trefoil-headed lights in stone surrounds. The chapel's south elevation has a central flat-roofed projection containing a lavatory, probably added in 1935, with a flat-arched half-glazed door on its south elevation and a single window on each of its west and north elevations in stone surrounds with scalloped stone lintels.

Interior

The nave is double height with three clerestory windows on each of its north and south walls, flanked by arcades and low side aisles. The arcade comprises five bays of equilateral arches separated by oblong piers: three at the east end from the 1910 church and two at the west end from the 1935 extension. Wide oblong piers between bays three and four are each pierced by a small semi-circular headed arch. The king-post roof is timber-boarded, painted blue and stencilled in white. The floor is of oak and Welsh slate, and the plastered walls are adorned with Stations of the Cross crafted by the Stuflesser Workshop in Ortisei, north Italy, in 1914. The stained-glass west window was manufactured by Dunstan Powell of Hardman & Co. and was previously located on the west gable of the 1910 church before the 1935 westward extension.

The round east window, also manufactured by Hardman & Co., features the Pelican in her Piety surrounded by symbols of the Passion. Below the east window, the chancel has a white and black marble platform supporting a white marble altar resting on octagonal hollow-faced columns. White marble and gilded altar rails survive on the north and south sides, though the rail in front of the altar was removed around 1993. The reredos on the east wall of the sanctuary includes copies of saints depicted on the 15th-century rood screen at St Helen, Ranworth in the Broads; it was shortened in 1993 when the altar was detached and brought forward. The suspended rood by Ferdinand Stuflesser (1855-1926) was moved one roof truss towards the sanctuary (westward) in 1993. The carved wooden pulpit on the north side of the altar stands on a chamfered stone base.

The south aisle has two doors to a confessional which retains a wooden partition. The west porch features a chapel on its south wall with an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and an aumbry. At the west end of the nave stands a copy of a 15th-century font from the Church of St Mary in Little Walsingham, Norfolk, depicting the seven sacraments. Off the north aisle, a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham was built against the round-arched doorway of the 1910 church when it was extended in 1935. This chapel has a timber-boarded ceiling with polychromatic blue and white painted and stencilled decoration, and contains an altar with a wooden reredos depicting Our Lady flanked by St Thomas More and St John Fisher (who were canonised in 1935) and a stone antependium carved in relief with the scene of the Annunciation. On the north side of the chancel, the organ chamber retains an organ manufactured by Richard Heslop of London.

On the south side of the chancel, a glazed screen and door, probably installed around 1935, provide access to the 1908 chapel. This chapel has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, plastered walls, and a wooden floor. The altar has a painted antependium and reredos depicting St Joseph flanked by St Cyril and St Methodius, brothers and apostles of the Slavs. Two two-light windows on the east wall contain stained glass from the late 1920s depicting the Flight into Egypt and the Death of St Joseph. One light on the west wall contains a panel of early-19th-century painted glass depicting St Mary Magdalene.

Subsidiary Features

The boundary wall and gate piers to Cromer Road and Cremer's Drift were constructed around 1910 in red brick laid in English bond with moulded red brick trefoil-shaped coping. There are two sets of gate piers to Cremer's Drift and two to Cromer Road, constructed of red brick with stone bands and triangular stone caps.