Description

CROOK AND WILLINGTON CHURCH HILL
NZ 13 NE
(East side) Crook
24/20 Church of Our Lady
Immaculate and
Saint Cuthbert
GV II

Roman Catholic parish church. Foundation plaque dated 1853; by Edward Welby Pugin; tower completed 1897. Irregular courses of squared sandstone; upper stages of tower hammer-dressed; ashlar dressings. Roofs renewed in slate-coloured asbestos tiles. Aligned south-west/north-west. Aisled nave with ritual north porch and south-west tower; chancel with north Lady chapel and south vestry link to presbytery. Decorated style; tower Tudor Gothic. Steeply-gabled porch has double boarded door in moulded arch with elongated 2-centred head; steps up to 2-centred-arched west door, with foliage-decorated hinges, flanked by filleted
shafts with vine-carved capitals under drip-mould with mitred head-stops;
cusped niche above has statue of Our Lady. Decorated tracery in 2-light aisle
windows, 4-light west and large 5-light east windows. Spherical-triangular
clerestory windows have 3 cusped lights. Tall 3-stage tower has 2-light west
window, cusped lancet at top of high first stage on east, steps up to boarded
door on south; high plinth and clasping ashlar buttresses. Upper stages offset,
with pinnacled clasping buttresses flanking clock under drip-mould, and tall
traceried belfry openings; pinnacled parapet has corner blind-traceried
battlements on flower-bracketed frieze with corner gargoyles. Steeply-pitched
roofs of nave, chancel and Lady chapel have stone cross finials.

Interior; painted plaster above painted boarded dado; ashlar chancel and
dressings. Painted scissor-truss roof and painted panelled keeled chancel roof.
5-bay arcades, the west bays filled with screens and the arches boxed in to
form south porch and north children's room, have moulded 2-centred arches on
quatrefoil columns with varied foliage capitals; high, shafted chancel arch
with flower-stopped drip-mould. Other arches to chancel and doors either
depressed 2-centred or elongated 2-centred. Chancel has angle-bracketed ashlar
balcony on south. West screen and gallery have Gothic tracery with crested
balustrade. High altar 1864 by J.F. Bentley now separated into 3 parts, the
tabernacle in the Lady chapel, the altar under the chancel arch and the reredos
in the original position, all of alabaster with enamel and gold inlay and
painted panels, in Gothic style. East brass foundation plate dated 1853. Glass
in east window by Hardman; other glass includes some by Atkinson Bros., Newcastle,
commemorating 1862 arrival in the parish of the Sisters of Mercy.

Listing NGR: NZ1680135786

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26522768

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living