Roman Catholic Church of the English Martyrs

Roman Catholic Church of the English Martyrs

A large modern Roman Catholic church completed in 1963-4, designed by E Dodds and K C White and completed by Brian Ring, Howard & Partners. The design embodies the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The exterior is built in brown brick laid in stretcher bond, while the interior is faced in pale blue-grey brick in Flemish bond. The roof is of folded timber construction clad in copper.

The church plan is broadly an irregular hexagon raised within a lower square. The raised section contains the main worship space, while the lower sections accommodate ambulatories, porches, side chapels, confessionals and sacristies.

The exterior is dominated by the dramatic folded roof with deep copper fascias, rising at the ends and dipping in the middle. The raised section has solid brick walls except for two very large glazed openings on either side of a projecting organ chamber, filled with opaque glass (possibly intended as temporary pending stained glass) to light the main worship space. Narrower side lights serve the organ chamber. The lower sections are flat roofed. On the front and side elevations, groups of elliptically-headed window openings containing slab in resin glass break the horizontal line: three serving the Lady Chapel and four the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The main entrance on the Frindsbury Road elevation is recessed and approached by steps, raised over lower ground accommodation. The corner parapet steps up and the wall curves; early plans show a raised lantern here, originally intended as the baptistery location (now a confessional). The foundation stone sits low on the return rear elevation. This wall features triple cantilevered concrete apsidal projections for an internal shrine, while the organ gallery is also cantilevered. Angled concrete projections denote the internal location of the Stations of the Cross and are lit on one side.

The interior focus is the sanctuary at the southeast corner of the hexagon. The pine boarded folded ceiling descends from the rear towards a shallow curved arch over the sanctuary before rising again over the altar. Large windows either side of the organ gallery light the interior. The raised section is carried on a concrete ring beam and pillars. The floor is woodblock, with screed tiles in the ambulatory and carpeting in the nave between benches. The sanctuary levels are unchanged; fixing points show where communion rails were once attached, though none appear in early photographs. Beyond two further steps, the altar sits on a fourth level. The sanctuary and steps have polished white marble flooring with a carpet run on the altar approach. An ambulatory encircles the main space, with side chapels, sacristies, confessionals and porches opening off it. The principal ancillary spaces are the Blessed Sacrament Chapel (Mill Road elevation) and the Lady Chapel (Frindsbury Road elevation), both featuring coloured abstract dalle de verre glass by the Buckfast Abbey workshop.

The original forward altar remains in situ with a polished black marble mensa and tapering central support. The black and white marble font, ambo and bronze sculpture of the Risen Christ against the sanctuary wall are later additions. The altar in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel dates from 1992. The Stations of the Cross are positioned on angles within the concrete external projections with side-lighting from yellow glass; stations 1-9 are by Bernard and Ann Davis (variously dated 1964-7) in bronze or aluminium, while stations 10-14 by Sister Concordia Scott OSB date from 1977-8. The larger northern projections house a shrine to the English Martyrs with catalogue statues. A life-size bronze statue of St Pio (unsigned and undated) stands in the Lady Chapel. Two large square canvas paintings of the Crucifixion and the Baptism of Christ by N Dennis (2005) hang high on the main space walls. The church retains its original plain open-backed bench seating, arranged in fan formation around the altar in the nave, with some older benches featuring more elaborate ends in the side chapels, presumably from the previous church.