Roman Catholic Church Of The Sacred Heart

HENLEY ON THAMES SU7681 VICARAGE ROAD 696-0/6/10001 Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart

II Roman Catholic church. 1936; by A.S.G. Butler. Flemish bond red brick with freestone dressings. Clay plain tile roof with brick parapeted gables. PLAN: Nave with west end entrance under gallery, north aisle, chancel with integral tower above and chapel in angle with north aisle; presbytery attached to south side. Arts and Crafts Gothic. EXTERIOR: The west [SW] end has pointed-arch doorway with carved wooden tympanum and statue niche above with canopy and flanked by tall 2-light pointed-arch windows; the south side has three brick buttresses rising through eaves and two pointed-arch traceried windows truncated below tracery; aisle on north side with parapeted roof, three 3-light windows with straight heads, buttresses between, gallery stair in N.W. angle and gabled chapel in N.E. angle with chancel. Rising above the chancel, and integral with it, is large east tower with parapeted cross-gables and small open-work metal spire surmounted by a cross; large 5-light east window in tower with reticulated tracery and tall straight-headed lancets on north and south sides. INTERIOR: Rendered walls with stone dressings. 3-bay north arcade without capitals and with shafts rising to roof, the metal trusses sheathed in wood. Gallery at west end has panelled front and late C20 organ. The chancel has fine altar, the spire niches by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, flanking reredos by Edward Welby Pugin, the mensa also possibly by Edward Welby Pugin; the sculpture was probably by Lane and Lewis of Birmingham. The east window stained glass is by John Hardman. Other Pugin fittings include the pulpit. The Pugin work came from the private Catholic chapel at Danesfield, near Marlow, Buckinghamshire, built in 1850-3 and by Augustus Welby Northmore and Edward Welby Pugin; it was demolished circa 1901.

Listing NGR: SU7624181790