Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Peter

Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Peter

This Roman Catholic church was built in 1897–8 to a French Romanesque design by F A Walters. The church is physically orientated north-east to south-west, though it is described here using conventional liturgical orientation as if the altar faced east.

The church is constructed of brick but finished entirely with painted roughcast to the exterior, with dressings and window surrounds in Bath stone. The roofs are covered in Westmoreland slate with red ridge tiles.

The plan comprises a nave beneath a steeply pitched roof, with a massive square tower straddling the roof and set back one bay from the gabled west front. A narrow north aisle runs the full length of the nave, and north and south transept chapels with eastern apses contain altars. The nave roof extends over a chancel with an apsidal-ended sanctuary. On the north side of the sanctuary is a lower range containing sacristies.

The west end features a tall gabled front with clasping buttresses. The centre projects slightly and contains a round-headed central entrance doorway with small roundels above and twin round-headed windows with a cross in relief between them, all set beneath a semi-circular relieving arch. The square tower is the same width as the nave and rises in four stages. The lowest stage aligns with the north aisle; the second with the nave clerestory; the third and fourth rise above the eaves of the nave roof. The three lower stages have clasping buttresses, with a small stair tower on the south face rising to the top of the third stage. The top stage has nook shafts at each corner. The second stage has three round-headed windows on north and south sides, aligning with the clerestory; the third stage has small round-headed windows on each face; the fourth stage has a single large round-headed window on each face, flanked by narrow round-headed blind openings with blind roundels above. A plain parapet with simple corbel table supports a pyramidal slated roof.

The narrow north aisle extends across the base of the tower. East of the tower, the nave clerestory has two bays of plain round-headed windows before the transepts, which have double transverse pitched slated roofs and plain round-headed windows in their end gables. The sanctuary features narrow round-headed windows in its plain side walls and in the eastern apse.

The interior entrance leads to a vestibule the full width of the church, formed from several smaller spaces including a small baptistery on the north side. A deep western gallery above the vestibule has a triple-arched front to the nave, with semi-circular stone arches on columns with scalloped capitals. The nave has a north arcade of three wide round arches cut through plain walling with inner arches brought down onto column responds with scalloped cushion capitals; the eastern arch opens into the north transept. The south side has two similar arches. Seven clerestory windows on each side are set in deep reveals. The nave has a parquet floor and a timber barrel-vaulted ceiling with carved hammerbeams, divided into two unequal sections by a stone transverse arch marking the east wall of the tower above. The transept chapels also have timber ceilings and arched openings to small apsidal spaces containing altars. A tall round-headed arch with wall shafts leads to the chancel, which is raised three steps above the nave. A similar arch marks the transition to the sanctuary, which also has a timber vaulted ceiling, now painted.

All principal furnishings were designed by F A Walters, though some have been relocated. The sanctuary is dominated by a tall stone baldacchino of Early Christian character, with clustered columns and a gabled front. Walters's original high altar has been brought forward; its former position beneath the baldacchino is now occupied by an octagonal stone stand for the tabernacle. The carved and painted stone side altars in the chapels of Our Lady and St Peter remain in their original locations. The font was moved from its original position in the north-west baptistery to the north-east chapel and replaced with a simple stone drum. The north-east chapel contains stained glass windows dedicated to St Gertrude and St Edward, made by Hardman and installed in 1899, presented by the donors. The open-back pine pews and handsome iron corona light fittings were introduced in the early 20th century.