Church Heritage Record 638268

6-bay aisled nave and narrower 2-bay chancel with apse, north and south porches projecting west from the aisles, apsidal baptistery projecting from the west end between these, north-east organ chamber, south-east vestry.

Nave 25m (77ft) by 9m (28ft).

There have been occasional finds of Neolithic and Roman date in the area.

The church was built in two stages, the west end begun in 1885 and the east end completed in 1891, by W A Coombs for the 4th Earl of Caernarvon. There were further embellishments during the course of the 20th century.

This is a large and impressive Basilica in a simple and consistent Romanesque style, with much attention to detail.  The nave is high with a tall clearstorey, and the building is given extra vertical emphasis by pairs of tall shafted dummy turrets at each end with pyramid roofs, and a gablet containing a statue of St Paul at the west end.

Beginning the description of the exterior here at the west end; this actually faces down towards the approach from Church Street, which snakes down to the main Burton Road below.  The eye is drawn down from the west gable of the nave with its large moulded round window to the apsidal baptistery sandwiched between symmetrical porches.  The baptistery has five rectangular windows within round-headed openings, a motif repeated in the porch doorways.  The porches themselves have tall gables, and two circular windows in their external walls.  The walls all have arched terracotta mouldings around the eaves.

The aisle windows are composed of triple lancets in the five westernmost bays, with strip pilasters between; the eastern bays contain a two-light and round-headed doorways, the south doorway giving onto a small porch with a hipped roof.  The clearstorey windows are two-light lancets within a rounded window head, again separated by strip pilasters.  There is a string-course which continues over the heads forming a continuous band, and a cogged and dentilled sill band below. 

The chancel is almost hidden from view amongst trees, hard up against the eastern boundary.  It has a clearstorey above the lean-to organ chamber and vestry on each side, with two circular windows in each outer wall.  The eastern apse has five single lancets high up in the wall above a string-course, separated by half-round pilasters. 

The north-eastern organ chamber projects below the side windows, with two lancets within a five-bay blind arcade, and a three-light lancet window in the east wall.  The vestry opposite is larger, with a lean-to porch protruding south from the south-east corner, with again a round window and a round-headed doorway.  There are two three-light lancet windows in the east wall and a two-light in the south wall.

The interior is high and spacious, the polychrome round-headed brick arcades of the nave carried by round ashlar piers with elaborately carved capitals, each dedicated by a parishioner in the late 19th century. The roof is very fine, of Queen-post construction. The aisles have moulded window openings and lean–to roofs carried on plain corbels.

The baptistery itself is of some splendour and dignity, with a fine marble font and adorned with regimental flags. There is a small chapel, the Caernarvon chapel, at the east end of the south aisle, within a panelled screen surmounted by a broken pediment, added in 1953. This partly blocks the round-headed entrance to the vestry behind.

The polychrome chancel arch is carried on shafted responds, the arch again round-headed as everywhere within the church. There is a marble balustraded chancel screen with a central half-round steps, added in 1912. The chancel has a barrel-vaulted king-post roof, and is painted light blue. To the north a large round-headed arch contains the organ, with its display of pipes, to the north a two-bay arcade opens into the vestry.

The domed and apsed sanctuary is painted white. It has a round-headed aumbry in the north wall and round-headed sedilia in the south. Three steps lead up to the high altar. The floors of the church are woodblock throughout, with the exception of the baptistery and the porches, which have good terrazzo floors.