Roman Catholic Church of St Anne, Ugthorpe, North Yorkshire

Summary

Roman Catholic Church of 1855 designed by George Goldie and including stained glass by John Hardman Powell. Also of historical special interest because Ugthorpe and neighbouring villages claims an unbroken tradition of Catholic observance.

Description

Roman Catholic church, 1855 by George Goldie with stained glass by John Hardman Powell.

MATERIALS: local sandstone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: conventionally gothic with an aisled nave and an unaisled sanctuary at the east end. A tower rises over the entrance porch at the west end of the south aisle. A sacristy extends north from the east end of the north aisle.

EXTERIOR: first-pointed gothic or Early English style with both plate and geometric tracery windows. The church as a whole has a simple tall plinth, angle buttresses and little external ornament. Gables are coped and surmounted by stone Celtic crosses.

Chancel: is of two bays with geometric tracery windows, those to the sides having a quatrefoil with two trefoil headed lights below, the east window being of three lights with a trefoil to the head, the window having a simple hood mould.

Nave: is of four bays with a low clerestory of plate tracery trefoils. Side aisle windows are also of plate tracery but with paired lancets headed by either a quatrefoil or a plain roundel. The west nave window has a simple chamfered surround and has geometric tracery consisting of four lancets headed by roundels.

Tower: is square and squat, being of two stages separated by a string course, topped by a plain parapet which largely conceals the pyramidal roof. The upper stage has paired, trefoil headed openings to three sides of the bell chamber, the openings being closed with timber louvers. The base of the tower has a two-centred arched doorway to the enclosed porch, above this there is a trefoil headed and canopied niche containing a statue of St Anne with her child, the Virgin Mary. The Calvary to the left of the tower is part of the later link building between the church and presbytery.

INTERIOR: plastered and painted walls with only the columns of the nave, and the tracery of the windows left as exposed stonework. The nave arcades has cylindrical columns with simple capitals supporting plain-chamfered, pointed but nearly round arches. The sanctuary arch is similarly treated. The roof structure is exposed with braced collars and short hammer-beams, that to the sanctuary being embellished with stencilling. The floor is mainly tiled: black and red to the main body of the church; enriched with geometric patterning in black, red, white and buff tiles in the sanctuary.

FITTINGS: high altar of stone with painted decoration set forward of the stone reredos which also has painted embellishment. This is flanked by stone pedestals supporting statues (Sacred Heart to the left, Virgin Mary to the right). The timber altar rail, set beneath the sanctuary arch, possibly predates the church as it does not match the style of the pine pews which are thought to date to the 1850s. A rectangular stone pulpit with painted decoration and supported by two short columns is set on the north side of the sanctuary arch, with a stone font on the south side. Beyond, sited at the east end of the south aisle, is a further stone altar serving the Lady Chapel, a large niche occupied by a statue of Mother and Child being in place of a east window. In the north aisle there is a pine panelled C19 confessional.

STAINED GLASS: the main east and west windows are thought to have been installed at the opening of the church and to have been designed by Powell. Two further windows in the north aisle, may also be by him, being similar in style and having a similar colour pallet in terms of both intensity and colour. The remaining seven stained glass windows are later memorial windows, probably by other designers. The rest of the windows (including all of those to the clerestory) are plain glazed.

History

The village of Ugthorpe claims to have an unbroken tradition of Catholic observance since the Reformation. The Blessed Nicholas Postgate lived in, and ministered from the village from about 1660 until his martyrdom in 1679. Provision was continued from that date by Father John Bradshaw with a chapel in the loft of his cottage. A later incumbent was George Haydock who served as priest at Ugthorpe from 1803 and from there edited a new edition of the Douai Bible between 1808 and 1814. A permanent Catholic chapel was built in the village in 1810, this being converted into a school with the construction of St Anne's Church in 1855, the same year that the village gained its first Anglican church, Christ Church. The church hosts an annual pilgrimage in honour of the Blessed Nicholas Postgate.

The Church of St Anne was designed by the architect George Goldie and built with funding from the Nelson family. The church contains a number of stained glass windows by John Hardman Powell. The linking range between the porch and the presbytery to the south west is a later addition.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic church of St Anne is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: St Anne's forms part of the tradition of unbroken Catholic observance in Ugthorpe and neighbouring villages, a previous priest in the village being the Blessed Nicholas Postgate, martyred in 1679;
* Architectural interest: although being a church of relatively modest size and detailing, it is one that has a very well considered and proportioned design by the notable architect George Goldie, being a relatively early example of his work;
* Stained Glass: although a small village church, St Anne's includes a number of very high quality stained glass windows designed by John Hardman Powell, arguably the leading stained glass window designer of the 1850s.

External Links

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