Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena

The Church of Our Lady and St Catherine of Siena is a stone-built Gothic-Revival church, originally constructed in 1869-70 to designs by Gilbert Blount, extended in 1882 by Alfred E Purdie, and partially rebuilt around 1950 by John E Sterrett. The walls are of Kentish ragstone with Portland stone dressings, beneath a slate roof, and the nave roof timbers are Glulam.

The church does not align with the liturgical compass; all orientation is described using the geographical compass. Its principal elevation faces south on to the A11 main road, with a projecting entrance porch to the west. The plan is longitudinal, with the main altar, east-west transept and sacristies to the north.

Both the nave and chancel have double-pitched roofs with a slightly lower ridge height marking the junction between them. The gabled south front is framed by angle buttresses with a shorter stepped buttress in the centre, rising to the sill of a large wheel window bearing female figurative carvings set into the lower spandrels within a semi-circular arched opening. The window is flanked by canopied niches containing statues of saints. Beneath this, the narthex is lit by a row of six diminutive lancet windows with hood moulds. In the apex of the gable, below the gable cross, is a vesical-shaped relief of Our Lady. The south-western porch is buttressed with large finials on raised stone verges; the southern front has a pointed-arched entrance surmounted by a niche with a statue of Our Lady. The nave is lit by simple lancets with buttresses between. The chancel is abutted by a lower M-profile sacristy, above which sits a five-light window with three trefoil lights.

The northern elevation has a gabled end with a central five-light gothic window. At ground level are twin gable-ended sacristies, each with two tripartite gothic windows and a central internal chimney stack rising at the northern end of the roof ridge. To the east, the Lady Chapel shares its northern wall with the former convent, with a gabled eastern end. It has a wide six-light round-headed window to the upper section and two transomed tripartite gothic windows at ground level. On the southern elevation are three tripartite gothic windows with trefoils to the upper section, and two rendered twentieth-century flat-roofed small projecting extensions at ground level.

Internally, the porch leads to a narthex below the organ gallery, supported on two octagonal stone columns between three shallow pointed arches. A plain timber staircase to the gallery is at the south-eastern corner. The gallery has a fixed organ at the western corner, and the south window contains a stained glass panel depicting the Sacred Heart dated to around the 1950s. The gallery parapet is solid.

The aisleless six-bay nave has an open Glulam arch-braced roof structure supported on metal wall plates. The western wall has a door to the porch with a small rose window above, flanked by two tall lancets and three shorter lancets to the north. At the northern end, two unembellished pointed arches lead to a small lobby with doors to confessionals and the sacristy. The eastern nave wall has a door with a small rose window and four tall lancet windows above. At the north-eastern corner is a door to a confessional and a cambered arch leading to a small porch, a feature dating from the reconstruction and representing a variation on the original configuration.

On either side of the chancel arch are canopied stone niches with statues of St Joseph and Our Lady. A five-sided stone and marble pulpit is set against the west side of the chancel arch. The three-bay chancel is narrower than the nave and has a timber rib-vaulted ceiling. The corbels and capitals in the sanctuary and north-western chapel are elaborately carved with foliage and angels. The reredos was designed by Blount and made by Farmer and Brindley, installed in 1874. It comprises four canopied niches containing statues of St Dominic, St Hyacinth, St Catherine of Siena and St Rose of Lima, flanking the monstrance throne and a brass and timber tabernacle. The frontal of the high altar depicts the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. The five-light Decorated east window was made by Hardman in 1901 and depicts Our Lady flanked by St Peter, St Catherine, St Thomas and St Patrick, with images of the two main benefactors at the lower sections on either side of the window.

Three pointed arches on two polished Aberdeen granite columns lead into the Sacred Heart chapel to the west, which houses the former nuns' choir and a small Rosary chapel dating to around 1926. The flat roof with skylights is supported by timber transverse arches with pierced spandrels on corbels. A central painted wooden altar holds a statue of the Sacred Heart by Mayer of Munich. The chapel also contains two sections of stone and marble altar rails and a marble plaque to the Reverend W O'Brien, parish priest from 1921 to 1926.

On the east side of the sanctuary, two pointed arches with a central red sandstone column of clustered shafts open into the Lady Chapel, lit by six cusped lights to the east and three two-light windows to the south. The ceiling is canted and boarded. At the eastern extent is a glazed and panelled timber screen below a gallery, with a blocked door to the former convent to the north. Other furnishings in the transept include a crucifix and a shrine to Our Lady.

The nave seating comprises oak pews from a 1990s refurbishment by Irish Contract Seating. The narthex, central alley and part of the transept have Victorian tiled floors, as do the sanctuary and the Sacred Heart chapel. Other areas have herringbone woodblock floors. The Stations of the Cross are conventional modern reliefs.