Catholic Church of Ss Peter and Frances

Catholic Church of Saints Peter and Frances

A wide church built in red brick and terracotta with a red tile roof. The walling employs English Garden Wall bond, with bluer-coloured bricks creating a diaper pattern in the brickwork. Miniature bricks are used in the window head details of the north-west elevation. The most distinctive external feature is the squatly proportioned entrance porch at the north, constructed in Arts and Crafts half-timbering on a high brickwork plinth. Double chimneys sit to the left of the chancel, and there is a link (possibly of later date) connecting to the presbytery.

The nave comprises four bays articulated by buttresses, while the chancel apse is polygonal in five bays. The apse is narrower than the nave but has higher eaves, allowing the roof to pass through without interruption. To resolve the clash at eaves level, the architect has employed small hip-roofed transepts at each side, which have no interior presence. The apse elevations are fenestrated in groups of three lights with simple foliated heads, with a string course at head that continues around the lights as a label mould and another string course at sill level. A plinth offset sits near ground level. The pseudo-transept facing south has three similar but taller lights. The nave side bays to north and south have groups of four similar lights. The west elevation is divided into two bays by buttresses and features a three-light group in each bay under a tall relieving arch, with a large seven-light cusped rose window above. This street-facing elevation is more ornate in detail.

The porch is open-fronted, built upon brick side walls with massive timber framing, leaded-glazed front and side windows, and the church name appears on the collar beam. The roof is gabled to the front with forward-projecting wallplates tusk-tenoned into the bargeboards. The roof merges with a non-half-timbered lean-to section adjoining the nave that incorporates twinned pointed lights. Within the porch, the entrance door is plain with splayed reveals and a pointed arch, and a small water stoup is positioned at the right.

Entry to the nave is via the north-west corner through a large door with multiple internal bracing. The nave is broad and short, with a large chancel arch opening into a polygonal apse. The chancel begins at a step approximately 1.5 metres west of the arch.

The nave roof spans four bays with high collar beam trusses featuring cusped struts above and large arch braces below, extending considerably beneath wallplate level. The interior is plastered and painted white, with a wood block floor and pitch-pine pews with open backs. An anteroom to the confessional in pitch pine is located at the left. Cinquefoil-headed niches flank the chancel arch, containing figures of Christ with Wounds and the Sacred Heart on the left and the Virgin and Child on the right. The Stations of the Cross in oak frames line the nave. A recently acquired organ occupies the south-west corner.

The chancel roof is similar in form but adapted to the apsidal configuration. The altar is constructed of coloured and highly figured marble with a mosaic cross at its centre, but is not original to the church, having been donated in 1925 and recently moved forward from the reredos. Before the altar are a lectern, seat and font, all recent additions in figured marble with inlays. The original reredos is carved in intricate late Gothic style and features niches for four saints and a central Throne of Sacrament above the veiled Tabernacle. A top stage of reredos finials is reported to have been removed around 1955. The saints in the right-hand niches are Saints Peter and Frances, the church's patrons; the left-hand niches contain Saint Francis and the Virgin. An aumbry is positioned to the left of the altar and a piscina/sacrarium to the right. Double doors at the left lead to the link to the presbytery.