The Church Of St Mary Magdalene

1207/0/10146 TRINITY ROAD 22-DEC-04 The Church of St Mary Magdalene

II Parish church. Built 1888 to the designs of E B Ferrey. Stock brick with orange brick and ashlar dressings. Plain tile roofs. Broad nave with side aisles, chancel and side chapel. Raised coped gables with ashlar coping and brick kneelers. West front has three tall 2-light pointed arched windows with ashlar Y-tracery, flanked by four brick buttresses with orange brick set-offs. The two central buttresses are deeper and rise above the central window to join over a small central circular with ashlar cusping. These linked buttresses rise further to form the base of double arched and gabled ashlar bellcote. The south aisle has a pointed arched doorway with double doors and another circular window with ashlar cusping, whilst the north aisle has six narrow brick lancet windows. There are three lancet clerestorey windows on either side of each bay of the nave whilst the chancel has two 3-light and a single tall 2-light window on each side all with reticulated ashlar tracery. The chancel east end also has three tall pointed arched windows, the central one 3-light flanked by 2-light windows all with reticulated ashlar tracery. INTERIOR has 5 bay nave arcades with double chamfered orange brick arches supported on circular painted ashlar columns with carved capitals. To the west end a fine stone font with a square ashlar bowl supported on polished marble columns. Minton tile floors and carved wooden pews. The plain rick chancel arch retains its finely carved timber rood screen with ornate bronze gates, to the right an openwork timber pulpit again supported on polished marble columns. The chancel has a Minton Tile floor ornate carved timber choirstalls and a brass and timber altar-rail. The altar is raised-up on four polished marble steps with terrazo floors and a triple canopied ashlar reredos. The altar is decorated with crved and gilded wooden panels. Boarded timber roofs throughout with exposed and cusped timber trusses. The windows contain a variety of interesting late-Victorian and C20 stained glass. This unaltered late-Victorian church has a very fine and well preserved interior with good quality fixtures and fittings.