Church of St Anne

Church of St Anne

A Gothic church in the early French manner, possibly influenced by the work of William Burges, designed by an architect who had been Burges's assistant. The building comprises an aisled nave dominated by a lofty chancel, which rises higher than the nave, crowned by an octagonal fleche. To the north are a vestry and sacristy.

The walls are constructed of snecked, rock-faced Pennant sandstone with lighter Corsham Down dressings. The gables are coped and finished with crucifix finials. The roof is slate with ridge tiles to the chancel.

The chancel is the principal architectural feature. Its east wall contains a high 3-light geometrical window with voussoirs, flanked by tall rendered kneelers swept down over the freestone caps of clasping buttresses (positioned where corner turrets appear in the original design). Above the window are 3 stepped vents beneath a thin string course. The fleche has crockets to its top and louvred belfry openings. The south wall comprises two bays divided by a central buttress, the right bay containing 2 lancets with hood moulds continuous with an impost band, whilst the left bay has a shallow lean-to projection. A moulded cornice with corbel table runs along this wall. The north side is similar, with 2 lancets west of a central buttress positioned above the sacristy. The sacristy has a 2-light east window, 2 cusped north windows, and a central doorway beneath a shouldered lintel with boarded door and strap hinges. The gabled vestry and organ loft to the west features gabled buttresses, 3 windows, a lintelled doorway with 2 lancets above and 2 quatrefoils in roundels to the gable. A reduced chimney stack rises from the east side.

The west end of the chancel, above the nave, is slate hung. The abutments show the nave was originally intended to have a clerestorey of the same height as the chancel. The east wall of the south aisle and part of the chancel south wall are pebble-dashed. The aisles contain simple cusped lights in the north aisle and similar paired lights in the south aisle. A simple gabled porch stands at the east end of the north aisle with a moulded arch over the doorway. The west end of the nave is rendered with 2 lancets.

The interior chancel is richly conceived across 2 bays. Between the bays stands a broad respond with ringed shafts and a pair of moulded arched braces. The chancel roof is open timber with closely-spaced rafters (not the original design). All windows are set high above a sill band with rere arches having ringed shafts. Blind arches with ringed shafts flank the east window, all superimposed by a full-height arch with similar ringed shafts. In the west bay of the chancel are tall arches with 2 orders of ringed shafts and 2-centred arches, blind on the south side (intended for a south chancel chapel) and opening to the organ loft on the north side. Both arches feature roundels in the spandrels containing demi-angels in low relief carved in 1898 by H. Gunthorp to designs of T. Nicholls.

The chancel arch has responds with nook shafts, though the arch itself is obscured by the lower nave roof. The 4½-bay nave arcades are in 13th-century style with piers of 4 clustered shafts with uncut capitals, except for a single stiff-leaf capital in the north aisle. Arches have 2 orders of chamfer and continuous hood mould. Transverse lower arches with punched roundels in the spandrels span across the aisles.

The nave roof is a utilitarian king-post design with diagonal struts. A pair of corbels at the northwest end suggest a more ambitious original design that was never executed.

The polychrome marble reredos by Prichard is positioned at the west end of the north aisle. Comprising 3 bays, it has cusped arches on shafts with foliage capitals beneath crocketed gables. The wider central panel depicts the Agnus Dei, with an inscription band in the lower portion and quatrefoils containing marble symbols including Alpha and Omega, a fish, and a Chi-Rho monogram.

The octagonal font has a round stem with detached shafts forming an arcade of cusped arches around the bowl, with pairs of blind cusped arches in each facet. The octagonal wooden pulpit rests on a moulded stone base and features relief panels narrating scenes from the life of Mary. A 1914-18 war memorial is also present.