Catholic Church of St Joseph

The Catholic Church of St Joseph is a Grade II listed building featuring loadbearing pale brown brick walls and a hyperbolic paraboloid roof covered with felt, supported by concrete buttresses at two corners. The church has a square plan arranged as a diamond, with the baptistery and sanctuary aligned along a diagonal axis. A fully glazed octagonal baptistery projects from the cut-off liturgical west corner, creating a prominent entrance. To the left of the baptistery, there are double timber doors with a shallow triangular head. A clerestory band runs below the eaves on all four walls, with three tall and narrow windows on each westward wall and single lights on the eastward walls. The sanctuary features projecting full-height fin-like window bays, which are its only external expression. The windows are made of aluminium, and the fascias are uPVC, having replaced the original timber.

Inside, the church has plain white walls and a quarry tiled floor, with timber tongue and groove ceilings. The entrance leads into a narthex with a meeting room attached, which was formerly the Lady chapel, along one side of the nave, and sacristies along the corresponding side beyond the baptistery. The large open plan worship area, with its diagonal orientation and unsupported roof, creates a sense of spaciousness. The sanctuary is raised by one step and is also aligned on the diagonal. It features a large altar made of Trevor grey granite, illuminated by concealed vertical window strips. The church is adorned with rainbow-colored dalle de verre stained glass windows by Peter Morton of Pilkington Glass, with panes above the tabernacle depicting the mysteries of the Rosary and the Angelus bell. The baptistery contains an octagonal stone font and a large dalle de verre window by Jonah Jones, illustrating the Baptism of Christ.