Roman Catholic Church Of The English Martyrs

The Roman Catholic Church of the English Martyrs is a church built between 1902 and 1903, designed by architect F.W. Tasker. The altar and reredos were created by F.G. Broadbent & Partners in 1961, and the church was reordered in the 1980s. It is constructed from yellow stock brick with random blue headers, red brick dressings, and a blue brick plinth, topped with a pitched slate roof featuring a slender slated spirelet. The architectural style is Early English Gothic.

The building has an asymmetrical rectangular plan, with the west elevation facing Flint Street and a staircase turret on the left. To the right, on Rodney Road, there is a one-storey curved extension for the Lady Chapel. The exterior is two storeys high, featuring a buttressed gable end with three tall lancet windows on the west elevation and a staircase turret. The entrance to the Lady Chapel extension is gabled, with a pointed arch and a moulded red brick surround. The side elevations have groups of three lancet windows in the upper stage only.

Inside, the church is finished in red brick and features a tall nave with five bays, pointed arches, a timber rafter roof, and lofty side chapels with transverse pointed tunnel vaults on either side. The sanctuary, which extends east from the nave, has plastered walls adorned with round blank arcading at the ground level and three cusped lancets above, along with a rib-vaulted roof. The chancel arch is supported by tall, single round shafts with arrises. The baptistry, which was formerly the choir, is located at the east end of the south ambulatory. The Lady Chapel extension to the south boasts a coffered ceiling and recessed windows in bays with splayed reveals and transverse rib vaults. An organ gallery is situated at the west end.