Catholic Church of St Mary

Catholic Church of St Mary

This is a Decorated Gothic Catholic church built in rubble stone with ashlar dressings. It features steep slate gabled roofs with coped gables, cross finials and terracotta ridge tiles.

The building comprises a nave with a lower chancel, a south porch, and an ashlar southwest spirelet. The west end displays a quatrefoil set in a roundel at the apex, above a three-light west window with a taller centre light. The side lights have quatrefoil heads and the window carries a hoodmould on carved crowned heads. A raised plinth runs around two large buttresses positioned at right angles at the southwest corner, which support the spirelet. These buttresses are shouldered with ashlar dressings and have gabled heads beneath an octagon base supporting a diagonally-set square pinnacle with gables and spire topped by a cross finial.

The south side of the nave comprises seven bays. The first bay contains a lean-to south porch with a broad cinquefoil-cusped pointed arch, paired boarded doors and a hoodmould with carved stone heads. A flight of six stone steps flanks the porch entrance, bordered by dwarf stone walls. At the foot of one wall stands a medieval stoup on a pedestal, attributed to the lost chapel of St Barbara in Carmarthen. The porch has a chamfered pointed inner door. The second bay contains three quatrefoils in a pointed surround set high. The third and fourth bays have two-light windows with quatrefoils in the heads and a gabled buttress between them. The fifth and sixth bays are plainer, as they were intended for a future south chapel addition; each has a lancet with stone voussoirs beneath a raised cement band, with three plainer buttresses, the lower one positioned between the lights. The seventh bay contains a single-storey link to the presbytery.

The north side is plain, as it was intended for an aisle, and has five narrow lancets with stone voussoirs between buttresses. The westernmost window is set within a broad red brick blind arch, possibly intended for a porch or chapel, and has slightly taller flanking buttresses. The northwest buttress has ashlar quoins.

The lower chancel has two two-light pointed windows with quatrefoil tracery and hoodmoulds. The east window has three sexfoils set in a pointed arch, positioned high in the wall.

Interior

The interior has painted stucco walls and a boarded timber ceiling of four cants. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch with a hoodmould on carved stone heads separates the nave from the chancel. The north wall features a four-bay arcade with pointed arches, round columns and moulded caps, constructed for the intended north aisle. The south wall has a similar two-bay arcade for the proposed south chapel. A heavy boarded south door is positioned beneath the west end organ gallery, which contains a pipe organ.

The stained glass is notable. The east window dates to 1852 and depicts the life of Christ in three sexfoils with rich colouration, probably by the Hardman firm. On the south side of the nave, from west to east, are windows depicting the Nativity and the dead of both World Wars; an Annunciation by Mayer of Munich to W. Richards and his wife (died 1890 and 1893); a St David window of circa 1990 by Barry Brady; and a window to Sister Pierre (died 1952) depicting the Virgin Mary. The north side features, from west to east: a window to C. A. Blake (died 1911) depicting St Anthony; a late twentieth-century Passionist memorial window of St Paul of The Cross, presumably by Brady; an Annunciation window to J. and W. Regan (died 1906 and 1908), highly coloured, by Mayer; and a similar window to W. and C. Regan (died 1892 and 1904) signed by Mayer. The chancel side windows have patterned glass.

A small octagonal stone font dating to 1889 stands in the church. The sanctuary has been reordered but retains an altar by Hansom, crafted from painted Caen stone with three trefoiled arches on coloured marble colonettes and carved spandrels. Above it stands a highly ornate painted stone Gothic reredos, also by Hansom, featuring four canopied niches with large carved figures of St Paul of the Cross, St Winefride, St Patrick and St Bridget, flanking a taller central niche containing a brass crucifix. The niches are lined with marble and have crocketted gables and finials. An ogee-headed piscina is set into the south wall, with a shelf on the north wall.