Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine

Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine

This church was built in 1868 in the Gothic Revival style, drawing on 14th-century motifs. It was designed by Willson and Nicholl. The building underwent minor alterations and reordering in 1985.

The church is constructed of buff London stock brick with Portland stone dressings. The roof is covered in slate. The windows are well-executed stained glass pieces by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.

The church sits on the west side of The Green in West Drayton and follows a traditional basilican plan with a central aisle flanked by side aisles and a clerestory. The nave and sanctuary are contained within a single cell, with the sanctuary marked only by a hammerbeam truss rising above slender full-height engaged colonnettes. Side chapels dedicated to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady flank the sanctuary.

Externally, the church consists of a five-bay aisled nave, a two-bay sanctuary flanked by side chapels, and a north-west tower that doubles as a porch. The building has a notably unfinished appearance, having been designed with a steeple that was never constructed, and bearing an unfinished block of masonry at the entrance. The tower was raised in the 1980s and finished with a concrete coping, replacing the previous pitched roof. The west bay of the south aisle has been screened off to form a repository. The fenestration includes various Decorated-style traceries: a five-light west window, a circular window with flowing tracery at the east end, three-light reticulated windows at clerestory level in the sanctuary, and two- and three-light windows in the nave clerestory. A sacristy abuts the north-east corner, linking to a presbytery of around 1950, which is not included in the listing.

Inside, the walls are plastered and whitened. The nave arcades have octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches with plain capitals, except at the sanctuary where the capitals are heavily foliated. There is no chancel arch; instead, the division between nave and sanctuary is marked by thin wallshafts carrying a small-scale hammerbeam truss. The nave has a pair of tie-beams with scissor-bracing to the common rafters. Over the sanctuary is a seven-sided roof with an open central portion. The interior is finely detailed and generally intact, with fixtures and fittings retained throughout.

The sanctuary and side chapels are richly embellished in contrast to the relatively plain nave and aisles. The most prominent feature is the reredos, comprising a central canopy above the tabernacle, figures of the Evangelists, numerous angels, and extensive tracery work over a base of various marbles. The reredoses in the side chapels are similarly ornate. Between the sanctuary and chapels are ornately carved screens: the screen to the Sacred Heart chapel to the north depicts Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, while that to the Lady Chapel to the south depicts The Annunciation. The high altar is carved with a scene of Christ rising from the Tomb, flanked by painted and gilded figures of St Catherine and St Michael. The Lady altar to the south has a three-bay open screen and depicts the Sacred Heart flanked by a pair of angels. The ceiling over the Lady Chapel features a traceried plaster ceiling.

The font, designed by S J Nicholl, is octagonal and richly carved with emblems of the Passion and the Baptism of Christ. It was relocated to the Lady Chapel during the 1985 reordering. Eight stained glass windows, generally by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, date from between 1884 and 1916. The 1985 reordering was carried out sympathetically, with the high altar modified and brought forward while the fine reredos was retained in place. The baptistery was removed to accommodate a new side entrance, and the font gates were re-used.