Roman Catholic Church of St Mary Our Lady of Sorrows, Denton, Tameside

Summary

Roman Catholic church. 1962-1963 to designs by Walter Stirrup & Son, with Kevin Houghton as job architect. Brick, reinforced concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof.

Description

Roman Catholic church. 1962-1963 to designs by Walter Stirrup & Son, with Kevin Houghton as job architect. Brick, reinforced concrete hyperbolic paraboloid roof.

PLAN: the church is built with the sanctuary facing north-west, but liturgical compass points are used for the description.

The church has a square plan arranged diamond-wise inside with a corner sanctuary diagonally opposite a cantilevered choir gallery and entrance vestibule. On the left-hand (liturgical north) side of the sanctuary is a single-storey, flat-roofed range containing two sacristies, a corridor to the adjoining presbytery, two confessionals and a garage.

EXTERIOR: the church stands on the north-west side of the junction of Duke Street and Market Street. It is built of mottled, light brown/orange brick with a deeply-overhanging reinforced concrete hyperbolic-paraboloid roof in four equal shells with steep corner peaks and supported on reinforced concrete piers at the mid-point of each main wall.

The west corner entrance is set beneath a projecting, triangular concrete canopy. It has two pairs of double doors under a name panel. The Honduras mahogany doors are embellished with vertical timber strips and Latin crosses, with aluminium rod door handles. The triangular canopy is echoed in a triangular area of green Westmorland slate flags in front of the doors. Above the canopy is a corner dalle de verre, concrete window. A sanctus bell is suspended from a concrete bracket on the soffit of the overhanging roof peak.

The Duke Street elevation, to the left of the west corner entrance, and the Market Street elevation, to the right of the west corner entrance, are mirror images. Each elevation has a narrow, vertical window flanking the corner entrance. These were originally full-height, but now have a slightly-recessed brick apron beneath the window. The opposite corners to the entrance have large, clerestorey windows beneath the overhanging roof peaks. All the windows have aluminium frames with slender mullions and vertical rows of differently-sized panes of coloured glass with intermediate, narrow, rectangular casements. They have green slate sills. The sanctuary has a large corner clerestorey window with diagonal sills sloping down to the centre. It has an aluminium frame with slender transoms, rows of differently-sized panes of coloured glass, and a green slate sill.

INTERIOR: the entrance vestibule is floored with green Westmorland slate flags and two inner pairs of double doors opening into the main body of the church beneath the cantilevered choir gallery. The vertically-banded timber doors have narrow, full-height, vertical glazing strips flanking the shaped aluminium door handles. On the right-hand side of the entrance vestibule is a single, solid timber door leading to WCs. Adjacent to the WCs is a children’s room with a glazed screen looking into the church.

The main body of the church has a frame of exposed reinforced concrete portal frames, painted white, supporting the hyperbolic paraboloid roof. These effectively create a quadripartite vault with curving forms framing the sanctuary, west choir gallery and entrance vestibule, and two other corners. The sanctuary has a platform and steps of green slate flags with an upper platform of cream marble flags. The lower platform has partial altar rails of square-cut cream and dark green marble. To the right is a circular font of cream and dark green marble with a brass cover. To the left is an ambo and small tabernacle altar, both of cream and dark green marble. A doorway with a vertically-banded timber door leads through to the sacristies. The upper platform has a cream marble altar with timber and metal crucifix. The cantilevered choir gallery has vertical timber boarding with a rectangular timber rail raised on circular, metal rods. The gallery is reached by an angled staircase with timber treads cantilevered from a central cranked steel spine and balustrades of rectangular timber rails with circular metal rod balusters. The west window has brightly-coloured dalle de verre glass representing Marian symbols by Carl Edwards of Whitefriars. There is a pipe organ on the gallery in a timber frame which follows the angle of the sloping roof. The wall to the left-hand side of the sanctuary has three doorways with vertically-banded timber doors leading to the two confessionals and the sacristies. Towards the left-hand end a small rectangular statue niche with a statue of the Madonna is set into the wall. Around the walls are the Stations of the Cross in the form of line drawings set in timber frames, with a larger line drawing of the Baptism of Christ in the south corner (original location of the baptistery), and a marble Pieta from the earlier church stands next to the choir gallery.

History

Denton expanded rapidly in the C19 due to industrialisation; its principal industries were hat making, which had originated here in C18, and coal mining, with a number of collieries. The Catholic mission was initially dependent upon the Roman Catholic Church of St Ann`s, Ashton-under-Lyne. A chapel-school was opened in 1867 built to designs by John Eaton, a local architect whose firm designed a number of buildings in the Ashton-under-Lyne area. In May 1869 the Rev William Crombleholme of St Ann’s laid the foundation stone for the first church dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, and mass was celebrated there in September 1869. The mission became independent in 1889, and in 1890 the church basement was converted to a Sunday school and lads’ club. The presbytery was completed in 1892 and a new school was built in 1893.

The 1869 chapel of ease was always intended for replacement and in 1961 it was finally demolished. Work on the new church started in November 1961 and the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Beck in August 1962 as the Second Vatican Council was in session. It was completed on 31 May 1963. The modern design with a hyperbolic paraboloid roof by Walter Stirrup & Son, with job architect Kevin Houghton, was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘wildly expressionist’. The dalle de verre glass was by Carl Edwards of Whitefriars.

The church was built slightly before the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, and in 1966 the altar was moved forward. In 1988 the latter was reduced in size, the pulpit and central section of the altar rails were removed, and a new ambo was added. Photographs from 1963 show that the original large, circular light fitting at the apex of the roof has been replaced with modern lighting. Diagonally opposing corners also originally had a baptistery (to the liturgical south side) and a side altar. The font now stands in the sanctuary and the decorative iron railings enclosing the baptistery corner have been removed. The corner platform, marble altar rails and altar of the side altar have also been removed. Both corners now have additional pews.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic Church of St Mary (Our Lady of Sorrows), Denton, of 1962-1963 by Walter Stirrup & Son is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* The church has a bold, modern design with an unusual hyperbolic paraboloid roof with steeply upswept, oversailing corners, reminiscent of wings, imbuing a strong architectural presence on the streetscape;

* The interior is dramatically enclosed by a single, central quadripartite vault set diamond-wise in the square building and framing the brightly-lit corners, sanctuary and opposing choir gallery;

* The church is notably embellished with a vibrantly-coloured, dalle de verre window by Carl Edwards, chief designer of the renowned Whitefriars glass company, and benefits from good-quality fixtures and fittings;

Historic interest:

* The square plan and encompassing, tent-like, interior of the church was at the vanguard of liturgical developments in unified worship then in the process of being formalised in the Second Vatican Council held in 1962-1965.

External Links

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