Our building

The main building

 

The church building was constructed in various stages between 1896 and 1929. It is a red-brick Victorian gothic building, in the style of the Decorated period. The design is traditional in having a large nave with clerestory, with side aisles, and a fairly large chancel with altar and choir. The arches are in stone, with a large chancel arch, arches and columns below the clerestory that separate the side aisles from the main body of the nave, and at the East end of the side aisles. In following the Decorated style there is much use of foliage emblems in the carvings of the stonework around the church, and the east and west windows contain flowing curved tracery.

The main entrance to the church used to be in the centre of the west front. This is still used as the entrance for weddings and funerals, but in day-to-day use the main entrance is now through the foyer area on the south side that was built as part of the community-room extension in 1995.

 

Spaces within the church

 

Although the main building is a large open-plan space, several areas have been developed for particular needs. The choir sits in stalls on both sides of the chancel. The space to the south of the chancel houses the organ pipes. The equivalent space to the north of the chancel is dedicated as a memorial chapel in honour of those whose lives were lost in the two world wars. The south-east corner of the nave is dedicated as a prayer area, with a small cross obtained from the Taize Community. Diagonally opposite, the north-west corner is dedicated as a children's area, where very young children can be supervised during church services.

 

Community rooms

 

The community rooms were built in two stages in 1982 and 1995. They provide one large meeting room (the Wilkinson room), two smaller meeting rooms (Cavendish and Gray), the parish office, washroom facilities and a kitchen. Children's Church: Living Waters meets in the community rooms, which are used for a wide variety of activities throughout the week and are available to hire to member of the local community, organisations and businesses.