Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Patrick

Church, Gothic Revival. Orientated NE-SW with the liturgical E end to the SW. Randomly coursed rock faced granite with Bath stone dressings. Slate roof. Paired and triple-light foiled lancet windows to nave, single foiled lancets elsewhere. Plate tracery to liturgical W end.

Aisle-less nave, 6-bay and buttressed. Sanctuary, stepped in from nave with tall paired windows to both sides, blind E (liturgical) wall. Liturgical west end of nave is flanked by projecting porch to right, and baptistry to left. Porch is buttressed, with 2-light window in gabled return, opposing wide recessed doorways with segmental heads and reeded jambs. Single window with cusped head alongside doorway in main elevation. Liturgical west front of 2 bays articulated by side and central buttresses, 2 orders of double windows with cusped heads, those above taller and with quatrefoils. Above the central buttress is a cusped niche containing a statue of the Virgin and Child, supporting a corbelled and gabled bellcote with bell. Polygonal baptistry to right with single windows. Sacristy to SW, single storeyed and gabled. Single storey cloister connects sacristy to presbytery.

Narthex, ceiling framed and with gallery above. Former baptistry at far end (now piety stall), gallery stair alongside. Inserted painted timber and glazed screen, this cuts over and partially obscures a wall painting of the pieta (Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Christ) created as a Great War memorial, probably by Hardman. Opposite is a WWI memorial, painted Celtic lettering and detail on board.

Nave, open steep braced scissor truss roof, plastered and painted walls. Oak benches. Sanctuary raised up 2 steps, behind steep arch, echoed in blank arch against rear wall. Painted panelled ceiling, perhaps a remnant of the 1919 scheme. Ornate high altar (moved forward) of Yorkshire limestone with pillars of Connemara marble. Reredos and retable (in original position) with elaborate carved canopies and statues of St Benedict and St David and a central pinnacle and canopied Benediction throne over a brass tabernacle. To either side of the sanctuary arch are further altars, dedicated to Our Lady and St Patrick, with ornate carved foliage, canopies and statuary. Octagonal baptismal font with simple carved cross detail set in front of St Patrick’s altar. Sacristy and confessional to side of chancel arch. Several late C20 stained glass windows by John Edwards and Hardman & Co. (including the St Michael window).