St Mary's Abbey

St Mary's Abbey is a convent and chapel built in 1872-3 by Goldie and Child. The building is constructed of red brick with stone dressings, topped with a slate roof and a wooden fleche. It is designed in the Gothic Revival style. The abbey is three storeys high, with eight bays, and features an asymmetrical projecting curved staircase tower on the eastern front, topped with a French-style apsidal roof. The upper floor has flat-arched windows, while the ground and first floors have pointed windows. A central timber porch provides access to the building. The western front is divided into three blocks linked by a single-storey corridor with a central entrance porch. Two blocks flank the chapel, which has a three-sided apsidal end with single lancet windows.

Inside the chapel, the ceiling is supported by slender wooden ribs resting on wooden moulding, with carved angel brackets at intervals. A small wooden gallery with a pair of arched doors is located above the main entrance. The principal staircase is wooden, featuring a pierced star pattern balustrade. The building is listed for group value with the adjacent St Francis’s Chapel.