Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea including boundary wall to Gordon Road

Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea

A large Roman Catholic church in the Decorated Gothic style, built between 1900 and 1902. The architects were George and Reginald Palmer Baines, with F W Richards as Surveyor. The building is constructed in red Somerleyton brick with Costessey ware terracotta (made near Norwich).

The church is roughly rectangular in plan with an apsidal east end and a rectangular sacristy area extending to the north-east. An offset tower occupies the north-west corner, and a south-west porch is attached to a glazed link corridor leading to Stella Maris Hall. (Compass points in this description refer to liturgical orientation, with the sanctuary at the east end.)

The exterior consists of a tall nave of six bays with single-storey aisles on each side, their lean-to roofs sloping downward. The clerestory features six two-light windows on each side with Decorated style tracery. A copper-covered timber octagonal fleche rises towards the eastern end. The apse is a single storey, flanked by square chapels with gabled roofs and circular east windows. The nave terminates in a gabled roof that forms the west frontage onto Gordon Road.

The tower, to the north of the west front, rises in three stages with angle buttresses. The lower stages have arched windows on three faces; the north face has a large gabled door with a tympanum. The second stage displays an arcade of three blind arches, while the upper stage has paired pointed-arch windows. Four crocketed pinnacles crown the tower.

Two doorways pierce the west front: one serves the nave, the other the south-west porch. Both feature two-centred arch ogee surrounds with finely moulded archivolts. The nave doorway is recessed and contains a niche with a statue of the Virgin and Child above; hood moulds above carry carved angel stops. The west front carries buttresses with large octagonal crocketed finials, and bands of blind-arcaded tracery appear above both the west door and south-west porch. A large five-light west window with Decorated tracery sits above the nave doorway.

The interior is accessed from either the south-west door (connected to Stella Maris Hall via a glazed link) or the west door, which opens into the narthex.

The nave roof is constructed with principal rafters forming false hammer-beams secured with tie-rods. The aisles have similar large principal rafters with spandrel cusping. Five-bay arcades of polished granite columns with alternating round and octagonal capitals rise from tall stone plinths, supporting the structure. A largely complete set of original pews remains. The clerestory and aisle windows contain stained glass with Arts and Crafts style patterns.

The high sanctuary arch features naturalistic leaf capitals. The apse ceiling comprises seven plastered and painted panels depicting the Kingship of Christ and the English Martyrs. An elaborate Gothic reredos with painted figures beneath gilded arches, together with a throne and altar carved by A B Wall of Cheltenham, forms the original furnishings. A ceramic mosaic floor is reported to lie beneath the carpet. Fine ironwork grilles separate the sanctuary from the two side chapels. The apse's five two-light windows contain rich, colourful figurative stained glass.

The Sacred Heart chapel on the north of the sanctuary retains its original marble altar, reredos, and altar rails. Its ceiling is a plaster groin vault painted with angels and symbols of the Passion. The Lady chapel on the south similarly preserves original furnishings with decoration featuring angels and chequered ribs, though its vault is painted blue. Both side chapels have ceramic mosaic floors and round windows with star-shaped tracery and stained glass.

The north wall contains a door to the sacristy topped with an ogee hood mould with scrolled ends; above it are wall paintings depicting St Thomas More and St John Fisher. The sacristy extends northward and has a pointed-arched external door. Also on the north wall is a confessional with a pair of pointed-arched doors with stained glass, beneath hood moulds with round stops featuring foliate carving.

The tower is accessed via doors at the west end of the north aisle. A spiral staircase serves the upper stages, while a turning cantilevered staircase leads to the organ loft, which houses a 1902 Norman and Beard organ. The narthex at the west end is formed from glazed panels.

Along the street frontage of the church and presbytery stands a low brick boundary wall punctuated by six heavy brick and stone piers with Gothic decoration.