Roman Catholic Church of St Saviour, and the brick entrance walls

Roman Catholic Church of St Saviour, and Brick Entrance Walls

A Roman Catholic church completed in 1923, designed by Preston-based architects WC and JH Mangan for the Diocese of Portsmouth. To the north-west are a pair of walls flanking the principal entrance way. The church is constructed in brick laid in a variety of bonds, with brick detailing and tile roofs.

The building has a cruciform footprint orientated roughly east to west, with a tower attached to the west end. It employs patterned brickwork and Romanesque-style features including single-light round-arch windows with tile voussoirs, most containing leaded glazing except at the east end. Decorative elements include brick banding, a dogtooth dentil course under the eaves, and panels with cruciform motifs at various points. The building retains some metal raingoods including several decorative hoppers.

The west front features a colonnaded narthex, later enclosed with glazing. Above in the west gable end are four windows and a central recessed niche containing a later mosaic panel. This end is flanked by a pair of sweeping brick buttresses. Attached to the north-west is a tall bell tower with recessed panels, projecting headers, bracket corbels beneath arched openings, and exaggerated projecting eaves topped by a pyramidal roof. A polygonal former baptistery, later the Martyrs Chapel, projects from the north-west corner. The main body is topped by a shallow-pitched tile roof with overhanging eaves supported by moulded timber brackets. Lean-to single-storey aisles flank the building to north and south, with single and paired windows, above which is a clerestory with single and paired windows divided by vertical brick bands. East of the aisles are a pair of flanking flat-roof single-storey wings with concrete parapets, and above are a further pair of sweeping brick buttresses. At the east end is a polygonal apse decorated by recessed arcading, flanked by a pair of polygonal single-storey side chapels; all have shallow roofs and deep eaves.

The main entrance is through the narthex, divided from the main body by a brick partition with blind arch recesses on either side, with a central pair of timber doors leading to the nave. To the north is the polygonal former baptistry, which includes the original metal and timber rails, a metal and timber altar, and a painted triptych of 1983 by Lyn Cottrall, together with paintings of St John Fisher and St Thomas More. The bell-tower's stone staircase on this side also leads to the organ gallery.

The main body employs round arches throughout, with red brick and blue brick detailing. Most internal wooden doors include leaded-glass panes. The nave has a parquet floor. Above the west end is the organ gallery fronted by a timber rail. The current organ is a late 19th-century instrument by Bryceson Brothers, installed in the 1950s. The nave is flanked by arcaded aisles with segmental arches on square pillars, and herringbone patterns in the spandrels. Above is the clerestory, its windows divided by brick pilasters. The walls are topped by stepped brick corbels. The nave has an exposed timber roof consisting of principal king-post trusses with diagonal bracing, supported by moulded corbels. Most of the open wooden pews are original; some closed-back pews to the rear are later replacements. The font, repositioned in the nave in the 1990s, has a deep octagonal bowl with carved Gothic panels on a base of clustered polished shafts. The stations of the cross are stone reliefs replacing earlier wooden panels. At the east end, doors lead to the confessional and sacristy on the north side and a pair of storerooms to the south, as well as a southern side entrance door. There are statues at various locations. Original metalwork survives including wall-lamp brackets and the sacristy bell.

The east end beyond the broad brick chancel arch has white painted plaster walls and ceilings. A short chancel with semi-circular stained-glass windows is flanked by arches leading to the side chapels. The chancel, side chapels and altar steps have a mosaic floor in a fan pattern with a black marble border; the altar rails have been removed. The marble-clad high altar was brought forward in the 1970s. The apsidal sanctuary has a half-dome roof lit by three small stained-glass windows. Most original stained-glass windows are in the east end; some are signed by Barrowclough and Sanders of Lancaster. A stained-glass window was added later at the east end of the southern clerestory. Against the east wall is the marble-clad tabernacle; the original timber reredos has been removed. The sanctuary is flanked by silver sanctuary lamps and round-arch niches; the southern niche contains the stone piscina. The wooden chancel furniture, including the pulpit, are later additions.

The main entranceway to the north-west is flanked by curving Flemish-bond brick walls with square piers, all capped by tiles. The walls incorporate projecting headers in a diaper pattern and the piers include tile panels with a cruciform motif that mirrors those on the main church.