Church Heritage Record id19777

West tower and spire, aisleless nave with south porch, chancel; there is no vestry save for the tower space, presumably because of the proximity of the vicarage.

By John Loughborough Pearson (1819-1897) , the church was built in 1873-5, the foundation stone being laid on 1st November 1873. The first incumbent was appointed in 1875.

The plan of Moss is quite simple; the tower is placed at the west end rather than asymmetrically to one side, and there are no aides or chapels to provide the carefully controlled vistas which Pearson liked to contrive. His obituary in the RIBA Journal for 1898 spoke of his desire to achieve correct proportion and outline before attending to detail, and Moss is a good example of this approach.

The west tower is stoutly proportioned, of three unequal stages of which the lowest is divided externally into two by a stringcourse at the level of the sill of the west window. Similar stringcourses also delineate the other levels. At the western angles are clasping buttresses which, with their stark outline unbroken by off-sets, add to the general appearance of strength; these terminate at the stringcourse marking the top stage from the second stage. The ground floor is lit by a west window consisting of two big lancets under a moulded hood and the silence chamber above has small lancets to the west, north and south. The belfry stage has three lancets of equal height in each wall with simple chamfered surrounds and these are linked together round the tower by a stringcourse which rises over each to form a hoodmould. The octagonal stone broach spire stands above a simple moulding with a base of the same dimensions at the top of the tower, thus dispensing with a parapet. It has no lucarnes and the sides are slightly cambered.

The nave could not be plainer; the north and South walls each have three single lancets with sills just above straight unbroken stringcourse. The south porch does not interrupt the arrangement of windows being placed between the first and second lights from the west. The chancel, narrower and lower than the nave, also has three lancets in the north and south walls, but the easternmost is shallower since the stringcourse steps up at this point before turning the eastern angles, after which it steps up again to form the sill from three graded lancets in the east wall. The eastern gables of the nave and chancel are surmounted by foliated stone crosses and there is a tall stone chimney at the north east angle of the nave. It is a remarkable feature of the church that, apart from clasping buttresses to two angles of the tower, it is provided with no buttresses.

The south porch, which is windowless, is entered by a plain two centred arch and the inner doorway is of similar form, the door itself being decorated with scrolling ironwork deriving from the hinges.

Brick facings to the interior walls give an impression more typically "High Victorian" than specifically "Pearsonian", especially since the grey bricks which are used for most of the surfaces are relieved at irregular intervals by hands (both singly and in pairs) of dull red bricks. The tower arch at the west is of three recessed orders, each with a roll-moulding along the edge, of which the outermost and innermost are composed of alternating blocks of red and grey bricks and the intermediate is plain grey. The arch, by its tall and slender proportions, lends a certain dignity to the nave of the church. The chancel arch is equally tall but rather wider, and has only two orders of brickwork, both with alternating blocks of red and grey bricks.

The chancel is tall and narrow, the east window (of three lancets) being set rather high with attached shafts paired between the light and single at each side, and the arched heads outlined by mouldings set back outside a series of variegated voussoirs. The height of the window from the floor allows space for a large reredos below; this takes the form of a tiled area reaching from the floor to the window sill, with a background of red tiles sown with buff fleur-de-lys at regular intervals, all these tiles having a matt surface. In the centre, is a square panel set diagonally of glazed tiles, introducing various shades of brown, these being arranged in the form of a vesica containing a cross with the text THY WILL BE DONE. At the top of the reredos is the text THAT IN ME YE MIGHT HAVE PEACE. On the south side of the sanctuary are two sedilia and a piscina under a triple arch. The east window is filled with glass which appears to be contemporary with the church, while two north and south lancets have glass of much later date. The roofs of the nave and chancel rely for effect upon closely spaced rafters giving the appearance of a barrel vault, and the furnishings in the chancel are evidently by Pearson.