Church of St Catharine

Church of St Catharine

This Anglican church was built between 1912 and 1915, designed by Walter B Wood for the Gloucester Church Extension Society in the Free 14th century Gothic style, and constructed by James Byard & Sons. The building has undergone alterations in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The church is constructed of snecked, vermiculated stone with ashlar dressings, and the roof is covered in stone slates.

The plan is orientated approximately west to east, comprising a four-bay nave with north and south arcades and aisles, and a narthex. Towards the east end of each aisle is a porch. To the east end is a two-bay chancel and single-bay sanctuary. The Lady Chapel lies to the south of the chancel, with a polygonal apse at its east end. Vestry rooms are positioned to the north of the chancel with the organ loft above. At the south-west corner stands the base of the intended tower, which was never completed.

The west end features a projecting, gable-ended narthex with a moulded-arched doorway adorned with foliate decoration to the soffits and hoodmould stops. Above the arch is a carved stone with foliate decoration and an octagonal stone cap, with a panelled and coped gable above. The vestry bays flanking the entrance are canted, each with two-light stone mullion windows. Above the porch, the west end of the nave displays a large Decorated-style pointed arch window beneath a hoodmould with foliate stops. The tri-partite window is subdivided by inset buttresses, arranged as two-, three- and two-light pointed arch windows. The gable contains three narrow roof vents with cusped heads. The nave is flanked by the lean-to western ends of the aisles, with a three-light pointed arch window to the end of the north aisle and a two-light pointed arch window to the end of the south aisle. To the west and south elevations of the south aisle are lead-capped buttresses of the proposed south-west tower. The two left-hand bays of the south aisle include a rectangular two-light stone mullion window to the left and a four-light window to the right with a four-centred arched head and hoodmould with headstops. The two gable-ended transept bays feature five-light Decorated-style pointed arch windows with wheel tracery to the apex, set beneath hoodmoulds with foliate stops. Beneath the window to the right-hand bay is the south porch, which replicates the style of the west porch but on a smaller scale with simpler decoration. At the right-hand end of the south elevation are three single-light windows with cusped heads to the Lady Chapel. The polygonal apse of the Lady Chapel has a single-light cusped-head window to each of the three sides, with the central window blind. The gabled east end of the sanctuary features a central six-light Decorated window within a pointed arch, with hoodmould bearing foliate stops. The gable contains a single roof vent. The side elevations of the sanctuary each have a single-light pointed arch window with trefoil to the apex and hoodmould with headstops. The chancel gable behind the sanctuary has three roof vents, and at the east end of the roof between the nave and chancel is a timber fleche with copper roof. Set back to the right of the sanctuary is the east end of the vestry with the organ loft above. The projecting vestry is canted to the north-east corner and features a crowning cornice with stone parapet. Above is the east end of the organ loft with two single-light cusped-head windows and a single roof vent to the gable. At the right-hand end of the north elevation are stone steps to a pointed-arch vestry doorway. The timber-plank door has decorative iron fittings. To the right of the door are two three-light chamfered stone mullion windows. A stone plat band with relieving arches above the windows divides the vestry from the organ loft above, which has three single-light cusped-head windows. To the right are the two transeptal bays of the north aisle and the north porch, matching the style of those to the south elevation. The two-bay western end of the north aisle has two two-light pointed arch windows to the left-hand bay and a two-light pointed arch window to the right-hand bay. Rising from the buttress between the two bays is an octagonal stone pier with stone cap.

The interior narthex leads to an inserted ground-floor room which occupies the space between the westernmost arch of the north and south arcades. At the south-west corner, a meeting room has been inserted, accessed by a timber staircase at the west end of the south aisle. There is no structural division between the nave and chancel, which have a continuous barrel-vaulted roof. The nave arcades have chamfered pointed arches supported on triangular piers with shafts to the corners with annular rings. The piers stand on moulded triangular bases with chamfered corners. Transverse arches to the aisles have two cross-gabled transeptal bays at the eastern end. To either side of the chancel is a two-tier arcade with corbelled shafts and pairs of pointed arch openings to each tier. The openings to the upper tier have nook shafts and hoodmoulds with foliate stops. On the north side of the upper tier, the organ pipes occupy the left-hand arch, whilst the right-hand arch is open. The upper arcade to the south side forms a pair of clerestorey windows which are blind to the lower section. The sanctuary arch is supported on corbelled cluster shafts. To the north wall of the sanctuary is the aumbry; the piscina and sedilia are to the south wall.

The square font of 1868 by M H Medland has relief carvings of baptism scenes to the sides and was introduced from the previous Church of St Catherine on Priory Road. The font cover was carved by parishioner Mr James and given to the church in 1916. The clergy stalls and choir stalls were designed by architect Walter B Wood, made by James Byard & Sons, and carved by A P Frith. The intricately carved and panelled pulpit with canopy, lectern, and linen-fold panelled chancel screen were designed by Rosier and Whitstone of Cheltenham and executed by R L Boulton & Sons of Cheltenham in 1926. R L Boulton & Sons also carried out the carved, painted and gilded reredos in 1937, the Gothic oak screen to the Lady Chapel between 1940 and 1948, and the altar rails, all designed by W E Ellery Anderson. The organ was provided by the Goddard family. Two war memorial plaques are located to the south wall of the Lady Chapel. The encaustic tiled floor to the sanctuary and chancel is by Godwins of Lugwardine.

The east window is by Jones and Willis, 1914. The two stained glass windows in the apse of the Lady Chapel are by Clayton and Bell, 1868, and were introduced from the previous Church of St Catherine, Priory Road. The south aisle window is by Percy C Bacon, 1921.