Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Calder Road And Hope Street, Mossend

Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Calder Road and Hope Street, Mossend

This is a Grade B listed building comprising a parish church designed by Pugin and Pugin in 1884, together with a church hall dating from 1868 and a presbytery.

The Church

The church is a rectangular-plan Gothic structure built in coursed bull-faced cream sandstone with polished ashlar dressings. It consists of a 6-bay nave with lean-to side aisles to the north and south, a slightly lower chancel outshot to the west, and is entered through an east-facing gable. To the left of the entrance stands a truncated tower, and to the right a semi-octagonal baptistery.

The exterior displays characteristic Gothic detailing. The nave bays are divided by shouldered buttresses. The side aisles feature 3-light trefoil-headed windows, while the nave has 3 quatrefoil clerestory lights to each bay. The chancel has 2 trefoil-headed lights on each side and a large hoodmoulded rose window on its gable, composed of cinquefoil lights with a row of 5 quatrefoil lights below. The principal entrance comprises 2 2-leaf timber-boarded doors with strap hinges in hood-moulded pointed arch architraves with traceried lights to the tympanums, with a small window between them. Above is a hoodmoulded, traceried pointed-arch window with flanking trefoil-headed lights. The truncated tower features a 2-stage semi-hexagonal stair tower advanced at one corner, whilst the baptistery is piend-roofed and has pointed-arch windows.

The roof is covered in graded grey slate with decorative ridge tiles. The windows contain diamond-pane lights with some stained glass. The gable ends feature ashlar-coped skews with gableted ends, bracketed skewputts and Latin Cross finials. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the external detailing.

The interior opens into a narthex with a terracotta tiled floor, containing half-glazed 2-leaf timber-boarded doors in pointed-arch architraves leading to the nave and side aisles, with decorative brass door furniture. An organ gallery above the narthex has a quatrefoil timber front panel. The 6-bay nave features middle-pointed arches on round columns supporting the side aisles, with roof trusses resting on bracketed sandstone corbels. The ceiling is decorated with stencilled painted quatrefoils. The chancel is reached by marble steps and has a marble floor. It contains a very ornate white marble or polished Caen stone high altar reredos with a gothic pagoda over a red marble tabernacle, flanked by relief panels depicting the Annunciation and the Flight into Egypt. Statues of Our Lady and St Joseph stand in gableted niches to each side. A marble lectern is positioned in the chancel, which has a stencilled ceiling. A Sacred Heart Altar with decorative marble reredos stands to the left of the chancel, whilst a Lady Altar with decorative marble reredos is positioned to the right. A timber-fronted confessional in an arched recess occupies the north aisle.

The Presbytery

The presbytery is a 2-storey building with attic, arranged on a roughly square plan over 3 bays with a piend roof. It is built in bull-faced snecked sandstone with polished ashlar dressings, base course, eaves cornice and blocking course. The principal south elevation features transomed and mullioned multi-light windows in moulded surrounds, with an advanced bay to the left containing tripartite windows to both floors and bipartite windows to the right-hand bay. A 2-leaf timber-panelled front door in a shouldered architrave with hoodmoulded shouldered fanlight occupies the centre. The side and rear elevations have chamfered window margins, with fenestration arranged in bays. A service outshot extends from the north (rear) elevation. Gableted dormers feature in the attic storey. A link corridor adjoins the east elevation.

The interior contains a half-glazed timber-panelled lobby door with side lights, and half-glazed timber-panelled interior doors with engraved glass to the principal ground floor rooms. Decorative cornicing is found throughout. A timber staircase with turned balusters and decorative Glasgow-style newel provides vertical circulation. Plate glass is fitted to timber sash and case windows, although non-traditional timber windows are present to the rear. Rendered wallhead stacks with red clay cans support the graded grey slate roof.

The Church Hall

The 1868 church hall is an L-plan structure with a gabled roof. The longer range comprises a 2-storey, 2-bay former presbytery with piend-roofed dormers to front and rear, adjoined by a 5-bay former church featuring chamfered pointed-arch lights and a gabled porch in the re-entrant angle. A slightly taller 2-storey former school building stands at right-angles to the north with hoodmoulded windows to the east gable.

The interior of the former presbytery retains a turned timber stair with cast-iron barley-twist balusters and some plain cornices. The former church and school have been modernised, with predominantly non-traditional glazing throughout. Rendered ridge stacks with short clay cans rise from the roof, which is covered in graded grey slate with ashlar-coped skews.

Boundary Features

Ashlar-coped bull-faced sandstone boundary walls enclose the site to the south and east, fitted with 20th century railings.