Church of the Sacred Heart

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a gabled cruciform chapel of English Gothic revival style to a sophisticated design using polygonal grey granite rubble with ashlar dressings. Rubble stone is much larger and more carefully selected to front façade than others. There is a canted ashlar plinth course with rubblework below and this runs all around the building. The orientation is N to S with the entrance in the south wall. Directions in this description are ecclesiastical.

The roof is natural Welsh slate with blue clay roll top ridge. Gutters are heavy gauge aluminium ogee set on stone corbel brackets; downpipes are large diameter spun aluminium.

The west front gable is crowned by a bellcote supporting a stone finial cross; the coping stones of the bellcote project and are stepped and interlock. All stone work to this element is flush pointed and this is the case with all the ashlar work; all arrises are chamfered and to the outer corners these are stopped. The bellcote rests on a projecting sloping stringcourse below which is a cartouche inscribed ‘1871’. This forms part of an advanced panel of rubble with ashlar quoins. Below the cartouche is a quatrefoil vent formed by four stones and set just below the level of the ridge to the main roof. Below this point the complete wall is in three vertical panels. The two narrow side panels are in plain rubble walling, and the centre panel is advanced and demarcated from the side panels by three stage stepped ashlar buttresses. The buttress cap is gabled with trefoil inset; surmounted by stone cross on a plinth block the steps to the second and first stages are pitched. In the centre panel below the quatrefoil is a triple lancet light. All are simple Gothic with the centre one higher than the other two; all dressings are splayed. There is a common label mould which stops at each end against the buttress and on the mullions is stopped by an acorn. Cills are flush. The surrounding rubble masonry is strap pointed, as is all the rest of the rubblework.

Below the triple lancet light is the main entrance approached by two granite steps with splayed modern metal handrails and a raised threshold. The Gothic encasement returns in two moulded recesses; the first one is pulvinated and the second is hollow; both are stopped in the outer course. Double doors are sheeted, varnished pine and have decorative iron hinge facings. There is a modern globe light over the door.

The outer corners of the west wall each have a pair of two stage buttresses set at right angles, detailed as buttresses described above.

The nave has four bays running up to the transepts with a single Gothic lancet to each bay. The windows have stopped label moulds, flush cills and quarry leaded glazing. All windows except where otherwise stated have similar detailing. Between the windows of bays two and three from left is a two-stage buttress detailed as the west front.

The transept advances by one bay with one window as nave in the west wall. There are corner buttresses as the west facade to both east and west corners. The coped gable has a stone finial cross and there is a triple light window as the west facade. The E wall of the transept has no openings.

The Sanctuary advances by one bay with a single window as the nave. The east gable has a plain stone finial with chamfered coping. There are two-stage corner buttresses and a triple lancet light as the transept gable.

The later single storey Sacristy extends out from a lean to roof pitched against the east wall of the north transept; there is an intersecting double pitched roof at right angles terminating in a cross pitch hipped at the S end and gabled at the N, all in natural Welsh slate. There is a rubble stone chimney with flush splayed cap. The boiler room door is slatted and stained. The Sacristy entrance door is sheeted, windows are paired lancets and detailing is a scaled-down version of the main building. Wrapped around the Sacristy is a modern disabled access ramp in concrete with metal hand railing.

The north and west sides of sacristy extension have pairs of timber Gothic headed windows set in a squared ashlar surround.

The north transept is detailed exactly as south, but with the lean-to roof of the sacristy abutting the east wall. The north side has a pair of Gothic headed lights set into a paired ashlar surround.

Historical information

Erected 1871.

Sources:
1. Datestone on church.
2. PRONI – VAL 12B/19/15A, p.5 (first cited in 1871 entry).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An attractive and assured architectural composition in a mature setting with good stonework detailing and associated gates and boundary walls. Interior is altered but remains attractive.