Our Lady Of Ransom Roman Catholic Church

Our Lady of Ransom Roman Catholic Church was built between 1890 and 1903 to the designs of F.A. Walters. It is constructed of buff sandstone with a plain red tile roof and is in the Decorated style. The church comprises a chancel with associated sacristy spaces, nave, north and south aisles, a lady chapel to the north, a south chapel, a south-west tower with a spire, and a shallow west porch.

The chancel has a five-light Decorated east window flanked by two two-light clerestory windows to the north and south. Gabled buttresses rise against the east wall of the chancel, which is bordered at the east end by the sacristy and chapels. A bell turret is situated at the junction of the chancel and nave. The five-bay aisles feature two-light windows with buttresses between them; the aisles have a plain parapet and lean-to roofs, but lack a clerestory. The tower has lancet windows in the two lower stages, two-light belfry windows, an octagonal third stage, a parapet with chequerwork, and a shingled spire behind it. The shallow west porch is topped with a niche containing a statue of the Virgin and Child.

Inside, the nave has four bays with stone, multi-shafted columns supporting pointed and chamfered arches. The chancel and nave are vaulted, with keeled ribs imitating vaulting. An elaborate Decorated reredos extends across the whole width of the chancel and incorporates doors on either side, with sculpted figures of saints under canopies. A low stone screen is positioned in front of the chancel, and a carved wooden pulpit stands on a stone base to the north. The Lady Chapel features a reredos with three sculpted panels depicting the Nativity, Adoration, and the Flight into Egypt, with a statue of the Virgin and Child on a pedestal under a canopy. The south chapel's reredos depicts Christ flanked by two saints. A quatrefoil pier is present in the nave, and subsidiary shafts fill the angles, all with fillets. A west gallery is supported by stone piers.

A Catholic mission was established in Eastbourne in 1869, initially served by a brick building on Junction Road. The construction of the present church was led by Fr Charles Stapley and was completed in 1903 during the incumbency of Fr Paul Lynch.