Church of the English Martyrs, Tilehurst, Reading

Church of the English Martyrs, Tilehurst, Reading

A Roman Catholic church designed and built by JH & WC Mangan in 1925–1926 in Lombardic style, with additions and alterations of 1970 and about 1990.

The church is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with tile dressings, beneath a shallow-pitched pantile roof. The plan comprises a nave of seven bays flanked by passage aisles, a chancel with apsidal sanctuary, and shallow transepts. An octagonal, low crossing tower with a saucer dome to its interior sits at the central crossing, flanked by square turrets at either side. A taller bell tower of five stages is attached to the north-west end of the nave. A single-storey vestry building is attached to the south-eastern corner of the church.

The exterior features arched windows and deep eaves throughout. Inset tilework crosses are placed above window heads and in panels. The western end of the nave has a deep central portal with a round arch extending into the gable. The doorway is recessed with panelled doors and a moulded marble surround. Above the doorway, the tympanum contains a mosaic panel showing the arms of Hugo Faringdon (the last abbot of Reading) and Sir Thomas More, together with the Agnus Dei, surrounded by the lettering 'OMNES SANCTI MARTYRES ANGLIAE' and 'ORATE PRO NOBIS'. In the recessed walling above the door is a semi-circular window. At either side of the portal, glazed terracotta roundels in the plain wall show Faringdon and More. Recessed at either side at the end of the aisles are panelled doors with mosaic-filled tympana bearing the motto 'O CRUX AVE SPES UNICA' at left and 'O REX CENTIUM' at right.

The flanks of the nave have single arched windows to each bay of the aisles, divided by pilaster buttresses. Above these, each clerestory bay has paired windows set between buttresses with offsets ramped at their lower end, where they break through the aisle roofs.

The north-western tower has paired lights to each stage on alternate faces. The penultimate stage has paired lights to each face, and the belfry stage has four openings to each face. The walling to this stage projects outwards slightly, supported on brackets, and the balustrade beneath the belfry openings is decorated with tilework patterns. The pyramidal roof has an iron cross to its apex.

The transepts each have a triple window set under a relieving arch with tilework keys. The turrets at either side of each transept, flanking the central octagonal crossing tower, have arched windows to their lowest stages at the same level as the aisle windows. Above this they are blind with recessed arched panels to each side, pyramidal caps, and eaves connecting to the crossing tower. The crossing tower has semi-circular windows to its drum on the north and south sides. The eastern end has ramped walling above the roof of the apsidal sanctuary, with eaves supported by four deep buttresses with shallow offsets and projecting panels to their tops. The vestry annexe at the eastern end of the south side is L-shaped with a boiler house projecting to the east, fitted with a square chimney with ramped walling at either side.

The interior nave arcade has plain rectangular piers of brick with projecting tilework keys and lateral brick arches crossing the aisles. The paired clerestory lights have brick heads, with plastered walling divided into bays by brick pilaster buttresses. Roof timbers are exposed with trusses featuring angled braces and central and lateral uprights. A lower arcade continues across the western end of the nave as a narthex, above which is the organ loft with a central projecting organ case. The central space beneath the dome has variegated arches with alternating stone and brick voussoirs to each of the four sides. Pendentives connect to a saucer dome over the crossing, with a band of decoration circling the lower edge. The sanctuary has a plain eastern wall flanked by lancets. This was altered in the 1970s when the high altar was moved from this position to beneath the dome and the ciborium was dismantled.