Roman Catholic Church of St Felix

This Roman Catholic parish church was built in 1911–1912 to a design by F.E. Banham of Beccles. The Lady Chapel, side chapels and sacristy were added in 1931–32, and the west end was completed in 1957 by R.A. Boxall of Chelmsford.

The link block between the church and presbytery is included in the listing, but the presbytery is excluded.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of Weldon stone with Bath stone dressings and plain tile roofs. The walls from the 1911–1912 and 1957 phases are of squared rubble built to courses, while the 1931–32 additions are of squared-snecked rubble.

Plan

The church is orientated north to south but is described here using conventional liturgical orientation (as if the altar were at the east end). It comprises a four-bay nave with north and south passage aisles, a single-bay narthex with choir loft, a two-bay chancel with single-bay side chapels, and a single-bay Lady Chapel on the south side. A sacristy and porch give off on the north side and west end respectively.

Exterior

The church is largely of Perpendicular Gothic design, but the treatment of the gabled west front of 1957 is more restrained than the early 20th-century work.

The west end has flat clasping buttresses to the corners and a projecting gabled porch with three-panelled double doors beneath a three-light fanlight flanked by two-light mullioned and transomed sidelights, all within a shallow arched opening. The arch bears the inscription HAEC EST DOMUS DOMINI (This is the House of the Lord), and a niche at the centre of the gable contains a statue of St Felix. Above the porch is a segmental-pointed king mullion window of seven cusped lights. The returns of the 1957 range are each of a single bay and have identical segmental-pointed Perpendicular windows of three cusped lights on the upper floors, with heads and lower lights beneath a transom featuring sunken panels of blind tracery. The ground floor of the right-hand return has a segmental-headed three-light window, while the left-hand return is blind. All windows in the 1957 phase are plain glazed with diamond-shaped quarries set within a diagonal lead lattice.

The north and south aisles are set back and mark the original building line of the west end when the church opened in 1912. The west ends of the aisles are both identical, with ground floors comprising three-panelled wooden doors set within moulded architraves with cambered heads. Above the doors are double lancet windows in segmental-pointed surrounds. The four-bay north and south sides consist of round-headed recesses with segmental-pointed Perpendicular windows of three cusped lights placed above a continuous sill band. All windows are plain glazed with diamond-shaped quarries set within a diagonal lead lattice. Projecting from the easternmost bay on the south side is a Lady Chapel of 1931–32 date. It has two trefoil-headed lancets on its south side, the two windows separated by an offset buttress, a triplet of trefoil-headed lancets on its west side, and a blind east wall. The lower section of the north aisle (below the sill band) is obscured by the presbytery link, which has a Portland stone façade with a 12-panelled door within a segmental-headed chamfered architrave, flanked to the right by a small metal-framed window with square-pane leaded lights.

The east-end chancel, which is narrower than the nave and also with a lower ridge line, has offset angle buttresses to the corners, an offset buttress to the centre, and a seven-light Perpendicular window in which the centre three trefoil-headed lights are raised while the flanking lights have trefoil-headed lower lights and dagger tracery above, all within a pointed arch with a label-stopped hoodmould.

The chancel is flanked by side chapels built in 1931–32 to replace temporary chapels. Both have blind east walls, which are formed of canted bays to accommodate internal altars, above which are stepped parapets with sunken panels that contain blind dagger tracery and are surmounted by Celtic crosses. The return walls have two windows of three cusped lights with trefoils to the heads.

Interior

Except where stated, all the stained glass described is by the workshop John Hardman and Company of Birmingham, and is believed to be the largest collection of this workshop's output in East Anglia.

The west porch leads into a narthex over which is a western choir gallery, all added in 1957 and subdivided from the main body of the church by a glazed screen with double doors at the centre. It originally housed a baptistery on the south side, but the font has now been moved to the west end of the nave.

The nave has a four-bay arcade of pointed double-chamfered arches carried on octagonal columns and responds. Engaged half columns with polygonal capitals in the bay divisions continue as ribs marking the bays in a pointed barrel-vault ceiling. The narrow passage aisles have transverse walls with pointed and chamfered arches at the bay divisions, above which are former segmental-pointed pierced openings that now contain high-relief polychrome Stations of the Cross (given in 1912 and reset in the late 20th century). On the north side is an Arts and Crafts-style confessional door with a six-light diamond-mullioned top panel set within a chamfered quoined surround with a flat head. At the west end is the church's original octagonal stone font, with a deep drum incorporating a watery motif and the Holy Spirit descending. The windows above the doors at the west end of the aisles contain stained glass on the theme of the Divine Mercy, installed in 2018 by Thomas Denny.

The two-bay chancel is elevated three steps up from the nave and has a pointed and chamfered arch with the upper level framed by blind tracery comprised of trefoil-headed lancets with two daggers to the apex. On each side of the chancel there are paired pointed and chamfered arches with continuous hoodmoulds with foliated stops, and fluted corbelled brackets support the rib marking the bay divisions in the pointed barrel-vault ceiling. The stained glass in the seven-light east window depicts the Mysteries of the Rosary, reset in the 1980s. The appearance of the sanctuary's east wall, in which the three centre lights of the east window are raised, suggests it was meant to have been equipped with a tall reredos, but this was never provided. The sanctuary furnishings all date from the early 21st century (post 2014) and include an altar, ambo and tabernacle plinth of matching stone by Abbeygate Masonry, Bury St Edmunds. The stonework reflects the original architectural detailing and the ambo incorporates carved symbols of the evangelists from the former pulpit.

The southern side chapel, to the right of the sanctuary, is dedicated to the Sacred Heart. It has three pointed and chamfered arches on its west side, of which the centre arch is taller and wider. It has a stone altar of around 1935 date and stained glass windows in its south wall depicting the Crucified Christ (attended to by St Thomas More and St John Fisher) and the Risen Christ (attended to by St Margaret Mary and St Gertrude).

The northern side chapel, to the left of the sanctuary, is dedicated to St Joseph. It has a tall entrance arch flanked by a smaller and narrower arch on its west side, both pointed and chamfered. It has a stone altar of around 1935 date and a gothic-traceried stone reredos with a central niche containing a statue of St Joseph. Stained glass windows on the north side depict Joseph and Mary's Flight into Egypt. On the west wall is an alabaster, mosaic and mother-of-pearl wall monument to Mark Anthony MacDonnell (1852–1906), in whose memory his widow gave the east window and Stations of the Cross in 1912.

The Lady Chapel is accessed through a pointed and chamfered arch from the easternmost bay of the south aisle. It has a stone altar of around 1935 date on its south side, stencil decorated walls and a square-panelled ceiling. Above the altar is a three-light window, of which the two outer lights are trefoil-headed lancets (as seen from the outside) that contain stained glass depicting Mary with a spinning wheel (left-hand side) and Joseph instructing Jesus at carpentry (right-hand side). The cinquefoil-headed centre light is blind and contains a statue of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus, signed by Mayer of Munich. On the west side is a three-light trefoil-headed window containing stained glass titled 'I Am The Immaculate Conception'.

The sacristy and the internal link to the presbytery is accessed from the easternmost bay of the north aisle through six-panelled double doors recessed within a chamfered quoined architrave with a moulded segmental head. The sacristy retains a 1930s wooden vestment cabinet, while the south wall of the church (within the link) has double stable doors with three-light diamond-mullioned top lights to the confessional.