The Abbey Church

The Abbey Church is a Roman Catholic church designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and built in two phases: 1922-24 and 1958-61, for Ampleforth Benedictine Abbey and College. The oak fittings were crafted by Robert Thompson, known as the "Mouseman" for his trademark carved mice.

Materials

The external walls are faced with scrunch-tooled limestone laid in random courses with extensive snecking, while the dressings are finely tooled ashlar. Bramley Fall stone from near Leeds was used in the early phase, and Dunhouse stone from Staindrop in County Durham was used in the later phase. Internally, the walls are rough plastered, with the earlier phase featuring Blue Hornton stone dressings. The roof structure and dome of the earlier phase are constructed in mass concrete, whilst the domes and vaults of the later phase are formed from plaster sprayed onto steel mesh formwork, with steel roof trusses. The pitched roofs are covered with Westmorland slate.

Plan

The church follows roughly a Greek cross plan with a central sanctuary beneath the crossing tower, a retrochoir to the west and the nave to the east. Side chapels run along the south side of both the retrochoir and nave, with a narrow side aisle on the north side. Entry is via a narthex leading to the north transept and also via external steps ascending to the south transept, the church being built into ground that rises to the north. Beneath the church is a crypt containing 25 chapels which are at ground floor level on the south side. The ranges linking the north side of the church between the narthex and the monastic buildings to the west and school to the east are not included in this listing.

Exterior

The careful massing of the exterior creates the impression that the church is both compact and massive, its height emphasised by paired lancet windows set into tall arched recesses extending upward from the string course marking the top of the crypt. Height is further emphasised by the steeply pitched roofs to the nave, retrochoir and the short gables buttressing the central tower above the transepts. The whole composition is grounded by the substantial projections for the transepts, side chapels and the gallery at the east end of the nave, all of which have flat roofs with plain raised parapets. The tower appears substantial rather than soaring, with broad, flat clasping buttresses, three pairs of belfry openings to each face emphasising its width, and a lightly embattled parapet without finials or spire at the top.

Windows to the crypt chapels are simple lancets without hoodmoulds, generally arranged in triples and linked by a sill band. Windows to the church are generally paired lancets set into recesses, the recesses having hoodmoulds. The clerestory windows are single lancets linked by continuous hoodmoulds, except for the paired clerestory lancets lighting the narrow bays immediately adjacent to the tower.

The west end features a tall arched recess containing a triple lancet window, each lancet embellished with a crocketed moulding above imitating a gable. Above this is a roundel lighting the attic space. The west end has slightly set-back pilaster buttresses which include shallow mouldings imitating blind windows.

The south transept has a high gable extending for just a single narrow bay from the crossing tower, this bay being the width of the side aisles internally. Set high in the gable is an arched recess containing three tall lancets. The transept then extends as a flat-roofed block for a further three bays, the first bay abutting the side chapels. Its south elevation has slightly inset pilaster buttresses and a deep arched recess containing a stepped triple lancet rising above a square-headed double doorway with diamond-framed oak doors. This entrance is approached by a pair of broad dog-leg staircases which flank a row of nine lancet windows lighting the crypt.

The east gable end of the nave has a roundel high in the gable and a flat-roofed projection accommodating the gallery at the end of the nave. This projection is flanked by hexagonal stair turrets with embattled tops and is lit by three very tall lancets without hoodmoulds, set between a pair of simple pilaster strips with gabled heads.

The north transept has a high gable similarly detailed to that of the south transept, also with a lower, flat-roofed projecting block. Its north elevation has set-back pilaster buttresses and a high plinth. At the centre is a square-headed double doorway with a triple lancet above lighting the organ chamber, all flanked by narrower pilaster buttresses with gabled heads. The entrance is also flanked by square-headed two-light windows lighting the narthex. The linking ranges to east and west are not included in this listing.

Interior

Although there is a distinct contrast between the two phases of the church—the earlier phase with dark-coloured Blue Hornton stone dressings, the later phase characterised by very clean lines uninterrupted by sculptural embellishment—this contrast can be seen as deliberate, marking the distinction between the monastic end of the church with its greater sense of enclosure and tradition, and that used by the school pupils and public, which is brighter and more open with excellent sightlines to the High Altar. Despite this distinction, the whole reads as a harmonious, unified design linked by the general use of drop arches throughout and the three pendentive-supported domes used on the east-west axis covering the retrochoir, crossing and nave. These domes are plain plastered and appear to be shallow saucers, though they are actually full hemispheres.

The church is centrally planned with the raised sanctuary beneath the crossing tower, flooded with light from windows in the crossing and the south transept. Seating for the congregation is provided in the south transept, nave and east gallery, with sightlines improved by the floor of both the transept and the nave being lowered. Visual yet permeable separation from the monastic end of the church is provided by the high arched reredos of the back-to-back High Altar.

Retrochoir

The retrochoir is domed, the giant arches supporting the dome being divided on the north and south sides into three-bay arcades defining the narrow side aisles, with three lancet clerestory windows above also encompassed by the giant arch. To east and west of the dome are narrow bays that are tunnel vaulted, that adjacent to the crossing tower having double lancet clerestory windows set in simple round-arched recesses. The giant arches and the arcades have individually carved capitals featuring a very wide range of subjects. The retrochoir has a full suite of stalls, those to the west wall being canopied. These fittings are very high quality, hand-tooled in oak by Robert Thompson and featuring a number of his trademark mice. The stained glass to the west lancet windows is by Herbert Hendrie (1928).

South Western Chapels

To the south of the westernmost bay is a single-bay, tunnel-vaulted chapel to St Benet which includes a medieval altar stone from Byland Abbey and stained glass by Geoffrey Webb. To its east is the Memorial Chapel to the fallen of the First World War. This is groin-vaulted in three bays and includes an elaborate reredos designed by Scott and a set of stained glass windows designed by Patrick Reyntiens. Both chapels have Blue Hornton stone dressings.

Crossing

The crossing is domed, with the dome and its supporting giant arches being higher than those in the retrochoir and the nave. Rather than capitals, the spring points of the arches are marked by a simple string course that continues round the first bays of the transepts immediately below the sills of the high triple lancet windows. These narrow bays match those immediately to the east and west of the crossing, being tunnel vaulted and lit by paired lancets in round-arched recesses. The crossing forms the sanctuary, on its western side is the back-to-back High Altar with its high reredos in the form of a free-standing gothic archway carved from Blue Hornton stone, incorporating canopied statues of saints. This was designed by Scott and built in 1925 with carving by W. D. Gough.

Nave

The nave mirrors the design of the retrochoir in overall form except its floor is lowered and it has an additional eastern bay including a raised gallery. Like the crossing and the rest of the later phase of the church, mouldings are simple clean lines formed from plaster, the mouldings to the arcade arches simply dying to the circular columns, omitting capitals.

South Eastern Chapels

These include a three-bay Lady Chapel and a single-bay Holy Cross chapel, all with stained glass windows designed by Patrick Reyntiens.

Transepts

The transepts are tunnel vaulted, the floor of the south transept being lowered and separated from the south aisle by steps. The south windows have non-figurative stained glass by Reyntiens. The north transept houses the main part of the organ.

Crypt

The crypt extends beneath the nave, south transept and the four side chapels. It includes two large and 23 smaller chapels, four of the smaller chapels dating to the first phase of the church having Blue Hornton dressings, round arches, tunnel vaults and stained glass by Geoffrey Webb. The later part of the crypt also has round archways, but has plain plastered walls, flat ceilings and mainly plain glazing. Four of the later small chapels have been divided off for other uses, and a further four have modern glass screens dividing them from the linking corridor.

Stained Glass

Most of the windows are clear glazed, but there are a large number of stained glass windows, only some noted above. Of those noted, the most significant are considered to be those designed by Patrick Reyntiens, particularly those in the Lady Chapel, and the small panels of medieval glass in the north aisle.

Fittings

In addition to the fittings in the retrochoir by Robert Thompson, as well as the High Altar reredos and the Memorial Chapel reredos, both by Scott, the church includes a number of other notable fittings including an alabaster carving of the Trinity found near Byland, a circa 1500 Italian crucifix, a 14th-century statue from the Rhineland, a bell cast in 1658 (the smaller of the two housed in the belfry), a reliquary presented to the abbey in 1903, a medieval-style memorial floor brass to Bishop Hedley (died 1915) and a large sculpture of Madonna and Child by Jonah Jones.

As stated above, the listed building is restricted to the abbey church and its south steps and does not extend to the attached monastic and school buildings.