Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

A Roman Catholic church built between 1907 and 1912, designed by Percy Lamb in a free Arts and Crafts interpretation of English Gothic style. A shallow apsidal sanctuary was added in 1978.

The church stands on a substantial undercroft of brown brick, built to accommodate the steeply sloping site that falls away from the road. The walls above are faced with Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings, while the later sanctuary is faced with red brick. The roofs are covered in Cornish Delabole slates.

The plan comprises a nave with a north-west tower, a south-west porch, a south aisle, and the shallow apsidal sanctuary. The west wall of the nave, which fronts the road, features a large five-light traceried window in Perpendicular style with blind arcading and a central image niche at the base. The single-storey south-west porch, now disused, has a crow-stepped gable and a four-centred arched entrance beneath a carving of the crucifixion by Earp & Hobbs of London.

The tall and handsome north-west tower is set back slightly from the main facade. It has a west doorway with elaborate carved decoration beneath a shallow gallery. The tower rises with set-back buttresses to the bell stage, which features a stair turret at the south-west angle and terminates in a crenellated parapet. The bell stage has large rectangular openings with two tiers of four cusped lights on the west, north and south faces, and a narrower opening on the east face between closely-set buttresses.

The south elevation extends for six bays, with stepped triple lancet windows serving the undercroft and broad three-light pointed traceried windows lighting the tall aisle above. Full-height buttresses divide the bays. There is no clerestory; the pitched nave roof and lean-to aisle roof are continuous. The north side is aisleless but has similar fenestration. The east elevation appears deliberately unfinished, with the east end of the south aisle built of brick and featuring a single wide pointed window and toothing for future extension. At the east end of the north-east angle stands a brick buttress terminating in a bellcote. Between them rises the full-height polygonal sanctuary, faced with red brick and added in 1978. The sanctuary has no windows except for a single narrow lancet on each side.

The interior is tall and light throughout. The floor is laid with wood blocks and the walls are plastered; most windows are clear glazed. The tower opens into the body of the church under a pointed arch at first floor level, perhaps originally intended to provide access to a western gallery. The nave has a six-bay south arcade of moulded and chamfered pointed arches carried on tall cylindrical stone columns, keeled on the nave side, with simple moulded capitals. The nave ceiling is a boarded and panelled six-sided timber construction with moulded collars to the principal rafters. The feet of these rafters rest on stone wall shafts mounted on uncarved corbel blocks. Along the wall plate, the words of the Magnificat are picked out in fretwork. The south aisle roof has decorative carving to its timber braces. The east window of the aisle has a moulded stone surround with blocking to the arch. The arch to the sanctuary is moulded, while the responds are plainly chamfered.

At the west end of the south aisle stands a massive onyx font designed by Percy Lamb and made by J Whitehead and Sons from a pair of columns originally intended for the baldacchino at Westminster Cathedral. At the east end of the south aisle is the former high altar, apparently introduced in 1918 from the Xaverian College, Queen's Park, Brighton, Sussex. The church seating was originally chairs; the present simple oak benches in the nave were made by parishioners and modelled on the early pews at Harbledown, Kent. The stained glass behind the font is by Caroline Benyon (2007), while the glass in the east window of the south aisle is by Cox and Barnard (1979).