Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine, West Drayton, London

Summary

Roman Catholic church. Built in 1868 in a Gothic Revival style corresponding to C14 motifs to designs by Willson and Nicholl. Minor alterations, and reordering, in 1985.

Description

Roman Catholic church. Built in 1868 in a Gothic Revival style corresponding to C14 motifs to designs by Willson and Nicholl. Minor alterations and reordered in 1985.

MATERIALS: the roof is of slate and the walls are of buff London stock brick, with Portland stone dressings. The windows are well-executed stained glass by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.

PLAN: the church sits on the west side of The Green, West Drayton, and conforms to a traditional basilican layout with a central aisle flanked by side aisles and a clerestory. The nave and sanctuary are contained within a single cell, the sanctuary marked only by a hammerbeam truss over slender full-height engaged colonnettes. Flanking the sanctuary are side chapels dedicated to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady.

EXTERIOR: the church is built of buff stock brick in a Gothic style, drawing on motifs from the early C14. Covered with slate roofs, it consists of a five-bay aisled nave, two-bay sanctuary flanked by side chapels, and a north-west tower (which doubles as a porch). The church bears a curiously unfinished aspect, having been designed to have a steeple, never built, and bearing an unfinished block of masonry at the entrance. The tower was raised in the 1980s and finished with a concrete coping, replacing the previous pitched roof. The west bay of the south aisle has been screened off to form a repository. The fenestration comprises various traceries in the Decorated style, including a five-light west window, a circular window at the east end (with flowing tracery), three-light reticulated windows at clerestory level in the sanctuary, and two- and three-light windows in the nave clerestory. A sacristy abuts at the north-east, linking to a presbytery of c1950 (which is not included in the listing).

INTERIOR: the interior is finely detailed and generally intact, and fixtures and fittings have been retained throughout. The walls are plastered and whitened. The nave arcades have octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches, all having plain capitals with the exception of those marking the sanctuary, which are heavily foliated. There is no chancel arch and the division between the nave and sanctuary is marked by thin wallshafts carrying a small-scale hammerbeam truss. The nave has a pair of tie-beams, and scissor-bracing to the common rafters. Over the sanctuary is a seven-sided roof with an open central portion. In contrast to the relatively plain nave and aisles, the sanctuary and chapels are richly embellished (see below). The ceiling over the Lady Chapel has a traceried plaster ceiling. The reordering of 1985 was sympathetically carried out, with the high altar modified and brought forward, and the fine reredos left in place. The baptistery has been removed to accommodate a new side entrance, but the font has moved to the Lady Chapel and the gates re-used.

The reredos is the most prominent item, comprised of a central canopy above the tabernacle, figures of the Evangelists, numerous angels and a wealth of tracery work, over a base of various marbles. The reredoses in the side chapels are also richly treated in a similar style. Between the sanctuary and chapels are ornately carved screens. The screen to the Sacred Heart chapel, to the north depicts Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane; that to the Lady Chapel to the south depicts The Annunciation. The High altar is carved with a scene of Christ rising from the Tomb, flanked by painted and gilded figures of St Catherine and St Michael. The Lady altar (south) has a three-bay open screen. The Sacred Heart chapel altar depicts the Sacred Heart and is flanked by a pair of angels. The font, now relocated in the Lady Chapel, was designed by S J Nicholl. It is octagonal, and richly carved with emblems of the Passion and the Baptism of Christ. Eight stained glass windows, generally by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, are of various dates between 1884-1916.

History

The Parish of West Drayton was established in 1867, following a period of transition during which the area developed rapidly from a rural settlement to a centre for brick and gravel production, served by the Grand Western Canal and the Great Western Railway. By the 1840s the area was experiencing a labour shortage, which coincided with the mass immigration precipitated by events surrounding the Irish potato famine. These Irish families settled in the area around West Drayton Green, and Mass was first celebrated in a stable to the rear of a public house called The King’s Head, now No. 29 The Green. By the 1860s, the Catholic population was sufficiently embedded to warrant a permanent Mass centre in the village. Fr Michael Wren purchased property on The Green consisting of a house, stables, coach house, and other outbuildings. On it he erected a temporary chapel for a congregation of 400 and a school for 80 children.

The foundation stone was laid for the permanent church by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Manning on Michaelmas Day 1868 and was consecrated in 1893. The design is attributed to the architects T J Willson and S J Nicholl. [although one source notes that the design was by Revd Alexander Scoles (Victoria County History; A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3 (1962)]. SJ Nicholl (1826-1905) is a recognised church architect and designer, who had been apprenticed to JJ Scoles and is most commonly associated with the Gothic style, although his church at St Wilfrid’s, Preston, Lancs (1879, with Fr Ignatius Scoles) is in the classical idiom. He provided the illustrations for GJ Wigley’s 1857 translation of St Charles Borromeo’s Illustrations on Ecclesiastical Building, which promoted the ideals of Counter-Reformation liturgy and architecture. TJ Willson (1824-1903) was generally an architect of Catholic churches, working with Nicholl in London between 1859 and 1868. As such, this is likely to have been one of their final commissions working in partnership. Their church of St Charles Borromeo, Ogle Street, London (1862) is listed Grade II.

Stonemasonry was carried out by McCullough. The high altar was completed in 1886 and included decorated panelling by Joseph Bouvier. The windows are by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, and include memorial windows to members of the de Burgh family; Robert Lill de Burgh was a former vicar of St Martin’s, whose widow had contributed £100 to the cost of the high altar.

A series of improvements was instituted in 1985, beginning with restoration of the organ. Reordering was carried out, involving the removal of the altar rails, and the modification of the original high altar, which was brought forward to its current position. Until 1985, the tower, which had originally been intended to have a spire (the original intended design is depicted on the grave marker of Fr Wren), was finished with a rather curious pitch roof. The initial phase of plans to complete the tower began in 1985, with the addition of an additional stage, to designs of architect B D Kaye. Funds were less than required for completion with the steeple, and the tower was finished with a concrete coping. The original entrance was considered dangerous and inconvenient, and so the baptistery was demolished to make way for a new entrance at the north side of the tower. Baptistery gates were creatively reused in the construction of a new lectern, in which the lock is still visible.

Reasons for Listing

The Roman Catholic church of St Catherine, West Drayton, of 1868 by Willson and Nicholl, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: the church is a good example of a modestly constructed Gothic-Revival church in the Decorated style, by the well-known C19 ecclesiastical architect SJ Nicholl, in partnership with TJ Willson;
* Interior: the church has a notably well-preserved Victorian interior, enhanced by an original scissor-braced roof, tiled flooring, stained glass and high quality fixtures and fittings;
* Artistic detailing: there is good quality stone carving, including the reredos, altar and font by Nicholl, and stained glass by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake, exhibiting high levels of artisanship throughout;
* Historic interest: the church represents an important element of the embedding of working class Irish immigrant communities in the C19 in the outlying districts of London.

External Links

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