Church Of St Agnes

The Church of St Agnes is a Grade II* listed building, constructed in 1886 by R.H. Carpenter as a private chapel for the Duchess of Montrose. It features a nave, chancel, west porch, a north side chapel, and a south vestry with a bell-turret, all designed in the Decorated Gothic style. The church is built of red brick with limestone dressings and has parapet gables. Its roofs are covered with plain tiles, and there is a circular limestone chimney. The windows have moulded brick reveals with limestone tracery and hoodmoulds. The entrance doorways are moulded with arched heads in various Gothic styles, featuring oak boarded doors adorned with decorative ironwork.

The slender octagonal bell-turret has an upper stage made of limestone with intricate detailing, including cusped openings on each face, a frieze of sunk tracery, crocketed gablets with traceried openings, and a crocketed spire. Inside, the walls are finished in fair-face red brick with limestone dressings, and there is a dado of majolica tiling throughout the nave and chapel. The sanctuary wall is richly decorated with various materials, including a marble reredos by Boehm in the Renaissance style, depicting the assumption of St. Agnes surrounded by cherubs in clouds. Above the reredos is a triple arcade of limestone containing figures of saints in vibrant Salviati mosaic.

The nave roof consists of seven bays with scissor-braced principal rafter trusses and boldly cusped arch-bracing, while the chancel roof is vaulted with moulded ribs. Most windows feature stained glass figures of saints created by Clayton and Bell. The church is recognized as an exceptional example of a high Victorian church, notable for its elaborate tile and mosaic work, and is complete with all its original fixtures and fittings.