Roman Catholic Garrison Church of St Patrick & St George

Roman Catholic Garrison Church of St Patrick & St George

A garrison church completed in 1912, designed by G L W Blount of Salisbury. The building employs a steel-reinforced concrete frame with flint stone walls and ashlar quoins, topped with a timber roof structure covered in tile.

The church is rectangular on plan, comprising an aisled nave with seven bays, an east sanctuary, a north-east tower, a south-east side chapel, and a west narthex. The south vestry has been enlarged and connects with a late twentieth-century presbytery.

The nave features a clerestory with bays articulated by buttresses supporting three-light windows with ashlar eared architraves and mullions. The clerestory windows have curved transoms with six small upper lights. A central door with an ashlar moulded doorcase opens into the north aisle. The north-east tower has a similar door with a single light window above, flanked by a wide clasping buttress featuring ashlar offsets and quatrefoil detailing in relief; the tower rises to a stepped parapet beneath a pyramidal roof. The sanctuary has a coped gable and paired lancets on both north and south faces. The nave roof incorporates two ventilators. At the west gable end, ashlar banding, quoins, and kneelers frame the central narthex, which features a wide central door with a deep ashlar case under a pointed arch with hood mould and label stops. Slender clasping buttresses at both corners rise to a coped gable topped with a crucifix on a moulded stone corbelled base, with a further stone base halfway down the gable on each side. The south aisle mirrors the north, with a single-storey extension of different phases at the east end. A side chapel at the south-east corner has five-light windows with tracery and a lower transom, its door a chamfered ashlar case under a pointed arch with hood mould and label stops. Small round vents marked "KNAPEN SYSTEM" are distributed across the elevations, with later adaptations to the ventilation system evident.

Internally, the seven-bay nave features square chamfered columns with stopped bases supporting pointed arches. Timber roof supports rising from nave corbels take the form of scissor-braced trusses with four sets of purlins. Aisle roofs rest on shallow-arched timber braces. All timber roof structure is painted black with white-painted walls and columns. The chancel arch is reinforced concrete, pointed and chamfered. The sanctuary contains wainscoting with a fretwork frieze and a tabernacle with statuary at the rear; panelling extends into the south side chapel, which features an enriched decorated tabernacle. The chapel window depicts a military family and a priest at a font. The north-east tower accommodates a ground-floor confessional, a concrete stair, and upper-level accommodation and storage. A mid-twentieth-century organ loft with organ stands at the west end. Ten windows contain stained glass, honouring Catholic saints or depicting military and commemorative themes. Memorial plaques are affixed throughout. Floors are principally laid with timber boards.