Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, attached presbytery and cast-iron gatepiers

Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart with Attached Presbytery and Cast-Iron Gatepiers

This is a Roman Catholic parish church designed by Canon A J C Scoles and built in 1896, with a north aisle added in 1900. The attached presbytery, also designed by Scoles, dates to circa 1897. A narthex was added in 1984 and is excluded from the listing. The building is constructed of Alcombe red sandstone with Bath stone dressings and clay tile roofs.

The church is orientated north-east to south-west, with the sanctuary at the south-west end and an L-shaped presbytery attached to the south. The church is roughly rectangular in plan with a polygonal apse to the east, a projecting north porch, and a south aisle.

The exterior displays Early English Gothic Revival styling. The church is built of roughly-faced, squared sandstone with angle buttresses featuring two offsets. The buttresses have raised, moulded copings with moulded kneelers. Roofs are covered with double-Roman tiles and pierced ridge tiles, with a cowled metal ventilator at the centre of the ridge. Windows throughout are paired lancets set beneath a continuous string that forms a drip mould.

The west gable end features a large circular window with cusped tracery. Set high in the gable is a pointed-arched niche flanked by stone louvres, housing a statue of the Sacred Heart, with a carved stone cross finial above. The south side has a small, one-bay gabled wing with a single lancet window to the west and a small trefoil opening in the gable. The taller, four-bay south aisle has gables to either end, each topped with an elaborate wrought-iron cross finial. The windows at either end of the aisle are quatrefoils; the aisle itself has four paired-lancet windows. The east end is canted with single lancet windows. The north elevation displays a projecting, gabled porch with a pointed-arched doorway, a lancet to the west, and a trefoil opening in the gable. Three windows serve the nave, matching those in the south aisle.

The interior features nave and aisle spaces with wagon roofs, plastered walls, and parquet floors. The sanctuary and lady chapel at the east end of the south aisle both have painted ceilings. The nave arcade is formed from three pointed arches springing from octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. A panelled timber organ gallery, now accessed from a stair in the 1980s narthex, spans the west end, carried on timber posts with pierced brackets. The font stands beneath the gallery. The large rose window at the west end depicts the Resurrection.

To the western end of the nave, the north porch and south cross wing extend to either side. The north porch contains a carved stone stoup and a window depicting St Peter. The cross wing was previously the baptistery and originally the Lady Chapel; its walls retain traces of polychrome painting. The nave and aisle feature stained glass windows, including one depicting St Richard of Chichester, in recognition of Minehead's first parish priest.

The sanctuary features an apsidal ceiling painted with stars, monograms, the instruments of the Passion, the Sacred Heart, vines, and an inscription, all completed by 1906 and executed by parishioner Arthur Lincoln Cox. A brass sanctuary lamp incorporating three angel figures, probably by Hardman and Company, hangs centrally. A polygonal stone and alabaster pulpit stands to the left. The altar rails, installed in the inter-war years, feature cusped ogee arches alternating with statuettes in niches, beneath an alabaster rail; the metal gates have been removed but survive in store. The mensa from the original altar now stands forward on marble supports added in 1982, with the frontal carving depicting the Last Supper installed below the reredos. The carved reredos features four angels flanking the tabernacle and canopied monstrance throne, with corner niches on either side containing elaborately-carved Gothic canopies for statues of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart. The three lancet windows contain stained glass depicting Christ as The Good Shepherd, the Assumption of the Virgin, and St Joseph.

The Lady Chapel occupies the east end of the aisle, opened to the sanctuary through a new archway created circa 1906. This archway is filled with a wrought-iron screen featuring gilded fleurs-de-lys, Sacred Heart emblems, and vines. The three easternmost rows of the panelled ceiling are painted with angels and Marian scenes. Altar rails matching those in the sanctuary stand alongside a statue of St Joseph on an elaborate pedestal with a Gothic canopy. The carved altar frontal depicts the apparition at Lourdes. Above stands a statue of the Virgin Mary set within a vesica of coloured marble beneath a Gothic canopy, flanked by angels on marble colonnettes with kneeling angels in alabaster to either side. The quatrefoil window above shows the Crucifixion, facing a similar window at the opposite end of the aisle depicting the meeting of Christ and his mother Mary on the way to Calvary.

The church retains a complete suite of stained glass by Hardman and Company of Birmingham, installed between 1899 and 1907. Windows in the aisle depict Marian subjects; the remainder show scenes from the life of Christ, the vision of the Sacred Heart, saints and bishops, and figures with particular links to the church and its history. The Stations of the Cross, dating from circa 1910, are Belgian moulded plaster in deep relief, set in timber frames with gabled tops and cross finials.

Attached at right angles to the south of the church is the presbytery, which is slightly later than the church but matches its style and materials. It is a two-storey building with hipped roofs constructed of matching Alcombe red sandstone with Bath stone dressings. The main elevation comprises three bays, with the entrance at the centre beneath a pointed-arched, recessed opening and a wide gable to the left. Windows are stone with mullions and transoms, with a string at the level of the first-floor cills. A niche high in the gable houses a statue of the Virgin. The rear is constructed in sandstone rubble with dressed sandstone quoins and brick stacks. A small, single-storey, flat-roofed flower sacristy is attached and built in brick. A single-storey lean-to addition to the rear wing is contemporary, with a later flat-roofed utility extension beyond.

The sacristy adjoins the western end of the nave on the south side and leads into the presbytery; a small, later flower sacristy is attached to its west side.

The interior of the presbytery features high skirtings, picture rails, and four-panelled doors. The closed-string stair has chamfered newels and diagonally-set, square section balusters. The principal rooms contain fireplaces with grey marble surrounds featuring moulded brackets and decorative cast-iron grates with floral tile inserts.

The wide gateway to the church is flanked by cast-iron gatepiers of polygonal cross-section, ornamented with blind Gothic detailing and Latin cross finials. The pedestrian entrance to the presbytery has similar but less elaborate piers, which are octagonal with a capital and domed head.