Church Heritage Record 602005

Nave, aisles, chancel, north transept (extension of aisle), unfinished south west tower, converted west end, offices, vestry and below the chancel there is a basement church room with facilities. A corridor runs behind the east wall to connect the two vestries on either side of the chancel.

Nave 12m by 17m North transept 10m by 11m.

The current building was built in 1902-3 to designs by Edward Mansell, replacing an earlier church of 1841-2. Internal work to create a community area in the west end was carried out around 25 years ago. In the early 1990s offices were created to the south of the chancel, including a first floor clergy office.

This building from the turn of the last century in late Perpendicular style is typical of the time but nevertheless still an important contribution to the local townscape. The west end fronts the very busy A38.

The nave and chancel have one continuous pitched roof and the aisles have lean-to roofs. The five aisle windows (three to the north) have pointed arches and are of three lights with cusped heads, the clearstorey windows have paired cusped lights in rectangular frames with cogged surrounds; these continue through to the chancel.

The vestries at the east end of the south aisle have two separate pitched roofs, one facing east and the other south. The south facing vestry has two thin windows of two lights under pointed arches and a high roundel with crocketed gables at either side. The east facing vestry has on the south side single cusped lights in rectangular frames and below these on the ground floor rectangular windows of domestic style.

The main entrance is at the west end which is dominated by a large west window of five lights with rectilinear tracery. The door below is flanked by two small windows with cusped heads and ornately gabled hood mould detailing, the doorway itself is a pointed arch with the door painted a bright blue. The stops of the doorway hoodmould has small carvings of figures on one side and animals on the other against a foliate background.

The truncated south west tower looks rather odd with a gently pitched roof and a slightly different tone of brickwork in which it was finished. The tower is of one stage and has a three light window in both the west and south facing walls. The building has a north porch with a separate pitched roof, this also has a window in the west elevation, of three lights but much shorter than the others described, with a four-centred arch head.

Internally the west door has a small porch and then leads into the reception area, this is a standard conversion using two bays; WC facilities are provided under the tower and there is an open kitchen on the south side. The porch to the north is used as a storage room. The main west window is not visible internally, and only one of the single stained glass lights below is visible, the other is accessed through a cupboard.

The eastward view of the nave is a pleasant ensemble, particularly as the pews and choirstalls remain and the canopied reredos provides a good focal point under the east window, which has a deep ledge of about a metre. On the south of the chancel, the organ loft is a good feature; it has display pipes to the roof, a projecting balcony and a wooden screen to the floor.

At the west end of the nave the fibreboard has not been plastered over. The five bay arcade consists of simple pointed arches with continuous mouldings and a continuous hood mould with some carved head stops. There is a double recessed arch to the north of the chancel with a four-centred arch set within the taller pointed arch. The roof of the nave is arch braced with collar and crown posts taken down to moulded corbels.

The north transept of two bays contains a chapel and has an altar and reredos screen. There are no windows in the north wall of the chapel and in the east there is a short four light window with a four-centred arched head, recessed within a larger rounded arch with a hoodmould. Below this window there is a doorway which leads to a small kitchen, back entrance to the vestry and also to a modern external doorway. 

The east end of the south aisle is finished by wooden panelling within a pointed archway. The rooms beyond this have been converted into offices on both the ground and first floors; there is also access to the basement rooms.