Roman Catholic Church Of The Holy Ghost, Boundary Walls And Gateway

A Roman Catholic church, gateway and boundary walls, designed by Father (later Canon) AJC Scoles and constructed between 1894 and 1899. The church underwent some internal alterations and updating of furnishings during the 20th century.

Materials and Structure

The church is built of rock-faced Hamstone brought to course, with freestone dressings, beneath a red clay double-Roman tiled roof with stone-coped gable ends and cross finials at the gable apexes. The sacristy is constructed of red brick under a red clay tiled roof.

The church is oriented approximately north to south and comprises five bays to the nave, a sanctuary with a polygonal apse, an east aisle and Lady Chapel, a sacristy to the west, and a northwest tower. A presbytery, also Grade II-listed, is attached to the west side of the church.

Exterior

The building is in the Early English style. The west end features a doorway with two orders of shafts and a deeply-moulded arch containing a carved tympanum. Above are large tripartite lancets with nook-shafts and lancet ventilation slits with louvres at the gable apex. To the left stands the brick-built sacristy with a three-light stone mullioned window with hoodmould to the ground floor and a first-floor window of three lights with pointed heads.

The side elevations of the nave feature tall two-light windows with plate tracery and continuous hoodmoulds, with buttresses bearing weathered offsets. The upper sections of the buttresses contain niches holding statues of saints, added in stages from 1928 onwards. A cusped rose window is positioned at the east end of the Lady Chapel. The polygonal apse of the sanctuary is divided into five bays by buttresses, also containing niches with saints, and has a continuous hoodmould. The small tower to the right has a polygonal louvred belfry and a short tiled spire. The rear elevation of the sacristy displays tall lancets with a continuous sill band.

Interior

The walls are plastered with Bath stone dressings. The nave features a two-bay arcade with octagonal piers and moulded arches to the south aisle, and two pairs of arched openings at first-floor level in its north wall leading to the organ gallery above the sacristy. The nave has a waggon roof with moulded trusses springing from carved corbels.

A tall moulded arch opens into the sanctuary, which has blind arcaded lower walls with sedilia and aumbry, and lancets above with nook-shafts. The elaborate reredos was repainted and gilded in 1974. The high altar of 1899, designed by Scoles and executed by Wall & Co of Cheltenham, incorporates coloured marbles, onyx and alabaster. A forward altar carved from Bath stone dates from 1981. The Lady Chapel contains a marble altar, also of 1899 by Wall & Co, and an elaborate stone reredos. A tablet commemorates Canon Scoles and the church's opening in 1899.

Altar rails made in 1924 by G Raymond were dismantled in 1969 and re-installed in 1974; the church retains its original altar rails on the main altar, though they were not correctly repositioned. An octagonal stone font and a statue of the Sacred Heart on a pedestal with marble colonnettes were added around 1901 to Scoles' designs.

Other furnishings date to the 1920s: a carved pulpit of 1923 by G Raymond, reconfigured and relocated in 1974; a statue of St Joseph (1923, Raymond); altar rails to the sanctuary and Lady Chapel (1924, Raymond), which were dismantled in 1969 and re-installed in 1974, though not in their correct positions. The Stations of the Cross are carved from Caen stone (1926, Wall & Co). The organ dates from 1928 and was built by George Osmond of Taunton.

Five stained glass windows in the apse depict the four Evangelists and an abstract design at the centre. The rose window in the Lady Chapel depicts the Assumption. The north windows of the nave depict the Holy Spirit, flanked by the arms of St Francis de Sales and Bishop Rudderham. Other windows contain modern, probably 1970s, antique glass with religious emblems.

Boundary Features

Close to the west door stands a tapering stone column surmounted by a replica of a medieval Crucifixion panel; the original is displayed within the church.

Stone rubble and red brick boundary walls bound the church to the south and east respectively, with stone copings. The east section and a short length of the south wall were originally topped with metal railings, which have since been removed.

At the southeast corner is a gateway constructed of red brick with Hamstone dressings. The archway has chamfered jambs and a pointed head with hoodmould and a metal gate. Above the archway is a stone plaque bearing the arms of Canon Scoles and the motto 'Omnia aeternitati.' The top of the gateway is stepped and is surmounted by a metal cross.