Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel including attached presbytery

The Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, together with its attached presbytery, was built in the 18th century. The building is a simple structure, rendered with roughcast and covered with grey-green slate roofs. The gabled church, which is set back on the right, is accompanied by a neo-Georgian style house attached to the left.

The church is characterised by its exemplary simplicity externally, featuring a steep roof, nave, chancel, and three-sided apse. It has three windows on the east side, three and a doorway on the west, with the windows having red tile sills and rectangular leaded panes set within arched surrounds. The apse has two smaller windows on its canted sides. A slightly advanced centrepiece on the south front has slate continued over it and an iron cross finial. The arched doorway is surrounded by three steps and a very slightly raised arched hoodmould, featuring a Della Robbia style ceramic plaque within a lunette. Above the doorway are two glazed loops, each side of wrought iron keys of St Peter, with a vent loop in the gable apex. Small, narrow, square-headed windows are located on either side of the centrepiece, also with slightly raised arched hoodmoulds. A west-side door is set within a single-storey link to the house, with a broad, open arch to the south.

The presbytery has a steep hipped roof and a rendered stack on the west roof slope. Its front elevation features a two-storey, four-window arrangement of small-paned metal casements, with red tile sills and shutters to the outer windows. There are paired casements to the outer windows, a single narrow light on each floor to the right of centre, an arched doorway with metal French windows to the left of centre, and a triple casement above. It also features a Della Robbia plaque in a lunette, and a slightly raised arched hoodmould, mirroring the church’s details. The main door is located on the east side, within a linking porch. To the left of the house, a roughcast garden wall with an arched doorway leads to the northeast corner of a small outbuilding. The outbuilding has three-quarter hipped gables, an open east end, and a casement on the south side.

The interior presents complex spatial divisions alongside simple building materials. The chancel and apse are separated by identical cross walls featuring broad arches and echoing open lunettes, creating complex views of the roof timbers. The walls are constructed from sand-coloured brick with pale grey brick dressings, while the chancel and sanctuary arches, and the lunette surrounds, are made of grey brick. The nave window surrounds are stepped, with the inner surround in grey brick. The sanctuary wall is semi-circular and entirely made of grey brick. The roof structure consists of double purlins with bolted nave trusses, boarding behind the rafters. A gallery is located at the south end, over a brick-fronted inner porch, incorporating a room on each side; the east room is a baptistery. The doors to the nave are arched with painted canvas lunettes, with those on either side being broader and incorporating wrought iron screens. A similar arched door with a painted canvas lunette provides access from the nave to the presbytery.