Church of St Paul

The Church of St Paul is a Gothic style church built from buff-grey bricks, featuring terracotta quoins and dressings, and topped with a steeply pitched, renewed slate roof with moulded eaves. The church has a three-bay nave supported by angle buttresses, a corbelled west bellcote, a three-sided east apse, a south porch, an organ chamber set at right angles on the north side, and a corrugated-iron vestry added to the northwest.

The south door of the porch is set below a hollow-chamfered, slightly ogee arch with a ceramic hood mould and bold floriated terminals. Inside the porch, there is a quarry tile floor and steps leading up to the south door, which features a finely moulded arch and tympanum with bar tracery. The two-light windows have cusped quatrefoil vesica heads, all with similar hood moulds. The apse windows are set high, linked, and gabled, with a deeply hooded sanctus bell hood above. The west window consists of four tightly curvilinear lights, situated below an unusual bellcote with a heavily detailed roundel and a single bell.

Inside the nave, the seven-bay hammerbeam roof has terracotta ribs, which were showcased at the Great Exhibition, disguised as arched braces painted brown to resemble timber, with posts to wall corbels. Detached cross-bracing rises from the hammerbeams to criss-cross the boarded ceiling. Two steps leading to the chancel were added later. The chancel arch, vault, and rere-arches are all painted, likely made of terracotta, consistent with the material used throughout the building. The chancel arch features naturalistic corbels and a lierne vault with bosses in the apse, along with rere-arches to the window embrasures. The nave floor is tiled.

Stained glass commemorating Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee in 1887 depicts Saints John and Paul in the east window, and David and Esther in a south window. Notable fittings include an octagonal font at the west end, a war memorial plaque from 1914-18 in the north wall, and an organ that was installed in 1884.