Church of St Pancras

Church of St Pancras

The Church of St Pancras is constructed of red brick with blue brick details and ashlar dressings, with slate-covered roofs. The building comprises a nave and sanctuary forming a single range with an apsidal east end, surrounded by north and south aisles that wrap around the apse. A south porch and a single-storey range project from the east end of the sanctuary on the south side, with a late 20th-century extension projecting from the western end of the nave.

The exterior features pitched slate roofs above a dentil cornice with ashlar coped gables and kneelers. Blue brick voussoirs appear above the aisle and clerestory windows and in horizontal bands running through the walls. The windows are of ashlar plate tracery. The porch at the western end of the south aisle has a moulded pointed-arched doorway with pedant arcading detail above marble shafts and waterleaf capitals. A 20th-century half-glazed door occupies the outer threshold, while the original doors inside retain decorative strap hinges. The three south aisle windows feature two-stage buttresses between them and consist of triple cusped lancets with three roundels above, the larger central one cinquefoil in form. Five clerestory windows are present: four contain double cusped lancets with alternating quatrefoils and cinquefoils above, while the fifth, a single lancet at the east end, lights the sanctuary. Three additional lancets appear at clerestory level on the apsidal east end.

The western end of the nave displays a large wheel window containing eight outer quatrefoils and a large central cinquefoil, above which are a pair of lancet windows. The western end of the south aisle has a smaller quatrefoil window. A single-storey extension with a pyramidal roof, dating from the 1970s, projects from the west end of the church.

The clerestory window pattern from the south is repeated on the north side above the aisle, which contains no windows. At the east end of the north aisle, the Lady Chapel is lit by a round window with cinquefoil bar tracery set within a small gable with a hipped roof behind.

A modest single-storey extension projects from the east end of the south aisle, containing the vestry and sacristy. The west side features two shouldered-arched windows with sashes and a smaller, later addition to the southern end with two more and a pointed-arched door.

Interior

The nave and chancel are under a single roof with tie beams carried by wall posts on corbelled stone columns with waterleaf capitals. The sanctuary is marked by a pair of tie beams carried on more elaborately decorated corbelled paired columns. The north and south arcades comprise four bays with short circular piers and waterleaf capitals, supporting ashlar and red brick banded arches. The sanctuary has narrower arches on more elaborate capitals. The floor is of flagstones; the nave and north aisles retain original benches with simple square-topped bench ends, while those in the south aisle date from the 20th century.

In the sanctuary, the original sculpted reredos depicts Christ and the Four Evangelists by Thomas Earp, comprising five tracery panels filled with decorative tile below aedicules supported on marble shafts. The central window of the apse includes a window of 1860 depicting St Pancras and is flanked by later 19th-century glass in the side windows. A simple piscina with a cusped pointed arch is set in the southern arch, while beside the northern arch, which is open to the Lady Chapel, stands the stone ambry set in an arched surround with a tiled roof effect covering. A surviving section of the original stone altar rail adjoins this; the remainder has been replaced by a simple timber rail on wrought iron stanchions.

The Lady Chapel is lit by a round window on the north side containing stained glass with a Marian monogram, coloured circles and quatrefoils. It is separated from the north aisle by an arch matching those in the arcades but with simple medallioned capitals. The original Caen stone and marble altar is set on three arches with short marble columns and a low reredos carved with rose, lily of the valley and marguerite, surmounted by a metal tabernacle and statue of Our Lady. The altar rail features twisted wrought iron posts with brackets more elaborate than those at the high altar. The rest of the north aisle has blind arcading with banded round arches along the north wall. At the west end, a timber staircase leads to the choir gallery, dating from after 1985, beneath which a doorway leads to the 1976 parish room.

The south aisle windows contain stained glass depicting St Martin of Porres and St Francis of Assisi from 1974 by John Lawson, and an earlier window depicting Saints Thomas, Andre and John dedicated to Henry Joseph Gough, who died in 1903. At the west end is a pointed-arched door, formerly leading to the school, with a small piscina adjacent. At the east end are confessionals entered through shouldered-arched doorways with matching timber doors, beside which is a doorway with moulded arch on columns and ornate capitals leading to the vestry and sacristy. The south aisle pews are plain with curved tops to bench ends, dating from the 20th century.

At the west end, the timber-fronted choir gallery, partly rebuilt after 1985, includes the organ at the southern side. The wheel window in the western wall behind contains glass depicting the Descent of the Holy Spirit, dating from 2000 and designed by Danielle Hopkinson of Ipswich. Beneath the gallery stands the original Caen stone font with a round bowl on four clustered columns, featuring a sculptured band of water lilies and four bosses of crystal spar around the bowl. Behind the font is a marble plaque memorialising 23 fallen of the First World War, decorated with a carved crucifixion scene and inscribed 'THE CATHOLICS OF IPSWICH / HERE COMMEMORATE THEIR / FELLOW CATHOLIC TOWNSMEN / WHO / BY LAND AND AIR / UPHELD / THE HONOUR OF THEIR COUNTRY / EVEN UNTO DEATH / DURING THE GREAT WAR. DOMINE PIE JESU DONA EIS REQUIEM'. On the north wall under the gallery is an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa dedicated to the crew of the Polish 'C' Armoured train, installed between 1941 and 1943.