Catholic Apostolic Church And Chapterhouse

A Catholic Apostolic Church and chapter house was built in 1840 for Henry Drummond by W M Brookes and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, constructed in the Perpendicular style. The church features an ashlar plinth with sandstone rubble walls set in ironstone galleting, and slate roofs. It is cruciform in plan, with a tower to the west end and an octagonal chapter house attached to the northeast. Vestries are located to the east end.

The four-stage tower to the west is square with a battlemented parapet, crocketed corner finials, and a pyramidal roof topped with a stone cross. It has a single, two-light louvred opening on each face, under a label moulding. Angle buttresses define the lower stages, and a large, four-light window is present on the west side. The three-bay nave is buttressed, with arched three-light windows under mouldings. Battlemented parapets and diagonal buttresses mark the west end. A small, square metal turret rises from the nave roof on a tapering plinth, with an arched entrance on each side. Large four-light transept windows are found to the north and south, and a large roundel with flowing tracery is at the east end. Single-storey vestries extend across the east end.

The octagonal chapter house is buttressed with crocketed finials. Each face of the chapter house holds a three-light rectilinear window under a flat lintel, and a door is located in the west face, within a moulded and chamfered surround. Small tower doors are positioned to the north and south. Large panelled doors are at the west end, set in a chamfered surround under an open, trefoil head arched arcade. This arcade features moulded capitals to the jamb shafts with quatrefoil carving in the coved spandrels.

Inside, the church has six bays, with transept arches defined by thin jamb shafts and funnel capitals. A king post roof displays trefoil arcading along the sides. A tower arch is located to the west, and texts are painted on the nave walls. Fittings include 19th-century pews and fixtures with crocketed decoration, an elaborate panelled pulpit with an arcaded balustrade to the stairway, and a billeted screen to the organ loft across the north transept. An octagonal stone font sits upon a carved octagonal stand, accompanied by an elaborate crocketed wooden font cover. 19th-century chancel fittings include choir stalls and a reredos. The walls are painted, and the original stained glass remains.

The church was originally constructed for Henry Drummond’s Catholic Apostolic Sect, which formed in the 1830s and concentrated at Albury in 1835. The last apostle passed away in 1901, and the final service occurred at the church in 1950.