Church Of St Mary (Roman Catholic) Our Lady Help Of Christians

Church of St Mary, Our Lady Help of Christians

A Roman Catholic church in High Victorian Gothic style, built between 1879 and 1881 to designs by AM Dunn and EJ Hansom, with carving executed by Roddis of Birmingham.

The building is constructed from limestone ashlar with small areas of rubble and a red plain tiled roof. It follows a rectangular plan oriented east-west, comprising a chancel, south lady chapel and north vestry (both with external rubble walling), an unfinished nave and a south aisle. The structure is of seven bays with a break between the nave and chancel, rising as a high single storey with coped verges and a single stack at the north side of the vestry.

The south elevation fronts the street and is the principal façade. It displays five bays to the nave and aisle, marked by buttresses in two stages. The south aisle features two-light windows with Decorated tracery of cusped-head lights and roses above, while the clerestory above contains paired windows, each of two lights, separated by strip buttresses. A porch situated within the western bay provides entry with stiff-leaf capitals, a statue of the Virgin within the gable, and a gable cross above. The adjacent south lady chapel, also crowned with gable crosses, has a small three-light Decorated window in its south wall and a large decorated window in the east wall with three cusped lights and trefoils above. The chancel is lit by small single-light windows in the south wall, largely concealed behind the chapel roof, and a large east window of three lights with cusped roundels above. The north side contains a vestry with two-light lancets and a modern skylight inserted into the roof. The north nave has plain paired lights within the clerestory, while the west wall is rendered and featureless.

The interior features a plain wagon roof to the nave, which was replaced around the 1950s following bomb damage in the Second World War. The chancel roof consists of a decorative bracketed bressumer supporting a panelled ceiling. The five-bay nave is separated from the south aisle by clustered columns with stiff-leaf capitals and carved spandrel figures of angels. The north wall is plain, with decoration limited to five stone panels filled with frescoes in 1997. The chancel contains an Italian marble reredos by Signor Leonardo, relocated from a previous chapel.

The Catholic parish of St Mary was established in 1847 with construction of a chapel, now a hall for the neighbouring Christchurch Anglican Church. The present church was opened on 3 May 1881 by Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, and dedicated to Our Lady, Help of Christians. The design was executed by Dunn and Hansom of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and built by local builder Joseph Bladwell. Original plans indicate the design was never fully executed: the west end was intended to be extended with additional bays, a school was planned for attachment to the south side of the Lady Chapel, and a house for the north of the sacristy. Although none were constructed, rough stonework and the rendered west elevation indicate their intended positions.

Until the Second World War, the church was situated adjacent to residential properties with a house directly abutting the west elevation. The Baedeker raids of April 1942 destroyed surrounding buildings, resulting in the larger grounds now surrounding the church. Though the church itself survived, the bombs damaged the roof and shattered all original stained glass. A centenary renovation scheme in 1981 involved relocation of the high altar and font, and removal of the pulpit and pews. As part of this scheme, the Italian marble reredos was cleaned and restored. In 1985, the eight panels within the reredos formerly containing fabric were filled with paintings of saints and martyrs by artist John Armstrong. In 1997, the five stone panels on the north wall were filled with frescoes by local artist Fleur Kelly depicting The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Nativity, The Marriage Feast at Cana and The Deposition from the Cross, incorporating details relevant to the local community.