Description

Edward Welby Pugin and Joseph A Hansom, 1853-4; 3 confessionals to S aisle, George Craig, 1891; N aisle, Pugin & Pugin, 1899; chancel, sacristy and chapels, Pugin & Pugin, 1911. Large towerless gothic church with confessional boxes to S aisle, later chancel, S transept and hall. Cream sandstone, squared and snecked stugged rubble with polished and droved dressings. Off-set saw-tooth coped buttresses; hoodmoulds with block label stops to principal openings of aisles and W front; eaves cornice; ashlar mullions.

NAVE: 7-bay aisled nave. W front with pointed-arch moulded doorway to centre flanked by lancet windows with cusped heads; tall 5-light window with cinque- and quatrefoil tracery above; blind oculus in gablehead; ornate cross finial. Large gabled porch to westernmost bay of S aisle with pointed-arch doorway, bipartite window above with quatrefoil head; 2 arrowslit windows to right, shouldered 'detached? stack with octagonal drum at top; rectangular bipartite window on return. Projecting side aisles with lean-to roof and bipartite windows with tracery (3 easternmost windows of N aisle single lights with cusped heads); S aisle with 5 projecting gabled confessional boxes connected by screen wall with segmental-arched opening; N aisle with small projecting segmental-arched doorway to westernmost bay, 3 stepped lancets on W return, rose window with flowing tracery on E return. Clerestory with pointed-arch windows of 3 lancets with cusped heads.

CHANCEL AND S TRANSEPT: lower projecting chancel with 3-sided apse, tall 2-light traceried windows to outer sides, broad 3-light traceried window to centre, 3 bipartite windows with cusped heads on N return; iron cross finial. Projecting gabled S transept with flat-roofed addition in re-entrant angle with S aisle, secondary door and single and bipartite rectangular windows to S wall, 2 tall lancets with moulded cill course and arrowslit window to gablehead, E elevation 3-bay with rectangular bipartite windows at ground floor, centre bay slightly advanced and breaking eaves in gablehead with bipartite pointed-arch window with tracery, small diamond-shaped panels with string course stepping over outer windows.

Windows of leaded lights. Steep black slate roof, crested stone ridge to chancel and S transept; ashlar skews and gabletted skewputts. Decorative eaves gutter, gutterheads and fixtures to chancel, S transept and part of N aisle.

INTERIOR: tall braced collar roof with timber shafts rising from stone corbels; pointed arcade with octagonal stone piers; tall chancel arch flanked by niches with statues of saints. Chancel with arcade to side aisle and arch painted with angels leading to apse, marble floor and balustrade. Apse with elaborate stone and marble reredos of blind arcading and ornately carved canopied niches with saints, ceiling decorated in blue and gold with stencil patterns and stars. Large organ flanking W window. Original timber pews. 2 additional ornate and richly carved alabaster altars in side aisles with red marble columns (probably early 20th century). Decorated gothic monument to Rev John Noble (d.1867).

Stained glass: central E window by The Cloky Stained Glass Studios, 1955; flanking bipartites 1881 and 1882, resited here in 1912; other windows mostly late 19th century with those of N aisle c 1920.

BOUNDARY WALL, GATEPIERS AND GATES: tall rubble boundary wall to S with semi-circular coping, chamfered doorway to SW with iron star inset; low rubble wall to front with saddleback coping, octagonal coped gatepiers with quatrefoil insets; elaborate cast-iron gatepiers.

Statement of Interest

Ecclesiastical building in use as such.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• St Mary Star of the Sea RC Church at Wikipedia
• St Mary Star of the Sea RC Church official website
• Wikidata Q17810423

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

• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)