Roman Catholic Priory Church Of St Dominic

The Roman Catholic Priory Church of St Dominic is an Early English style church built between 1874 and 1883 by Charles A Buckler. It was constructed in multi-colour stock brick with stone dressings, and has a slated roof with a Lombard-style frieze at eaves level.

The church has a plan consisting of an eight-bay nave with clerestory, aisles with lean-to roofs and projecting gabled chapels separated by buttresses, transepts, and a polygonal apse. The west front features a central gabled and buttressed entrance bay with a pointed arched recessed order entrance, incorporating a quatrefoil medallion with a relief of the Holy Family in the tympanum, and double wooden doors. Flanking the entrance are blind traceried windows. The east front has a four-light traceried window flanked by blind Y-tracery windows, with Lombard-style frieze at the apex base, and a rose window and trefoil reliefs at the angles. Eastern aisle windows have two-light traceried centres flanked by blind pointed windows, with buttresses flanking moulded aisle entrances. Seated statues of the evangelists are positioned in niches above the doors. Aisle and clerestory windows have plate tracery.

Inside, the church is lofty, with a quadripartite timber vault. Piers have stiff-leaf capitals and steep pointed arches, and the clerestory includes a cast-iron gallery originally intended for cleaning and lighting. The church was designed as a shrine in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary, with fifteen mysteries each dedicated to its own chapel, seven on either side of the nave, culminating in the high altar and sanctuary dedicated to the Coronation of the Virgin. The transepts also contain chapels, including that of St Dominic, featuring a reredos painted by Philip Westlake, with other chapels featuring richly carved stone reredoses. Stations of the Cross in a Late Gothic style were painted by NHJ Westlake in 1887. The Chapel of the Annunciation was a gift from Buckler, who is depicted in a window. The High Altar was also designed by Buckler and includes a central tabernacle, a pinnacled Gothic tower, and a gilded imperial diadem, with mosaics by Salviati to either side. There is also good stained glass by Gibbs and Howard from 1880. The church’s planning, designed to embody a universal prayer in its structure, is notably unique in England.

The church was one of the first buildings constructed by the revived Dominican Order, who purchased the site in 1862.