Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gorleston

Summary

A Roman Catholic parish church constructed to the designs of Eric Gill and J Edmund Farrell in 1939.

Reasons for Designation

The church of St Peter, Gorleston, constructed to the designs of Eric Gill and J Edmund Farrell in 1939, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the radical and influential plan form which placed the altar at the centre of crossing;
* for its highly considered design, in which the whole building is kept within an austere set of constraints regarding form, materials and ornament;
* for the high quality of the interior features, including artistic contributions by Tegetmeier, Foster and Nuttgens.

Historic interest:

* for the rarity of its liturgical arrangement, the second example ever constructed in England of a centrally planned altar in a Catholic church;
* as the only architectural project ever delivered by its designer;

Group value:

* for the strong visual and functional relationship it shares with the Grade II-listed presbytery.

History

The Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 permitted the first new generation of Catholic places of worship to be built in England and Wales since the Reformation. The 1829 Act of Emancipation removed most remaining inequalities from Catholic worship and was accompanied by growing architectural confidence.

There was a significant expansion in the numbers of Catholics in England between 1850 (around 700,000), 1911 (around 1.7 million) and 1941 (2.7 million). This increase was accompanied by the development of a new Catholic parish system in 1908, and by numerous building projects around the country.

The first post-Reformation Catholic church in Gorleston was a converted malthouse that stood on Church Lane. The building, dedicated to St Peter, was in use from 1889. Ambrose Page and Mrs Nellie Carson were the first to marry there, in 1908, and Page later bequeathed enough money for a new site to be bought in 1913 and to get permission (by 1938) for the construction of a new church.

Fr Thomas Walker commissioned Eric Gill, with whom he shared views on the centrality of the alter in liturgical planning, to design the new building. The latter had trained but not practised as an architect and St Peter’s was the only building ever constructed to his designs. To deliver the project he engaged the more experienced J Edmund Farrell to work alongside him. The contractors were HR Middleton & Co of Yarmouth.

The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Youens of Northampton on 28 February 1939. The bishop opened the unfinished church on 14 June of the same year. Gill died in November 1940, long before the formal consecration of the building on 5 May 1964.

There were some changes to the original design. Notably, the original vision for an open west porch was actually built as a fully enclosed baptistry. The hot air heating system and lighting scheme had already been replaced by 1959, and again in 1992. In 1962, Fr Walker considered the new church to be finally nearing completion and advertised for sale the reredos, altar and altar rails from the old church. They were described as being over 140 years old and may have come from an 1809 private chapel at Costessey Hall, predating the old St Peter’s on Church Lane.

Though Gill died in 1940 many of the interior features were carried out to his design, including the font, stoups, piscina and altars. As were the Latin inscriptions on the altar plinth, and the carved relief figure of St Peter on the porch brickwork, produced by Anthony Foster. Gill’s son-in-law, Denis Tegetmeier, painted the tower fresco and created the Stations of the Cross.

The presbytery was completed after 1940, probably to Farrell’s designs, and in 1959 Wearing & Hastings designed the church hall.

Contrary to the original architect's wishes, two stained glass windows have been installed in the church: the 1963 figure of Christ the King in the east window (JE Nuttgens), and the 1994 Lady Chapel window showing Our Lady of Walsingham (Chapel Studios).

In the late 1950s, Barry Hastings (of Wearing & Hastings) installed a canopy over the altar, causing the rood to be lifted higher. Around that time Tegetmeier’s fresco was overpainted in brighter colours. These changes were reversed in the early 1990s with Andrea Kirkham carrying out the restoration of the paintings.

At some point in the post-war period, the original confessional at the east end of the north transept was converted into a cupboard, and a new confessional was fitted out at the south-west corner of the church.

In the mid- to late 1970s, the sanctuary platform was altered and extended, and the pulpit was moved from its original north-west position. The tabernacle was re-positioned from the altar to a shelf under the east window, allowing for the west-facing celebration of Mass in accordance with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

The building was highly innovative for its liturgical arrangement. The church of Our Lady and the First Martyrs in Bradford, constructed in 1935 to the designs of JH Langtry Langton (Grade II), was the first centrally planned Catholic church of the C20 in England. Gill carved a figure for the porch there and his 1938 essay ‘Mass for the Masses’ espoused the virtues of a centralised altar as a means of enhancing the communality of the Eucharist. St Peter’s church in Gorleston was only the second Catholic church in England to have adopted this plan. Ultimately, it was a vision that would rest at the heart of the major liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the introduction of central altars in the majority of Catholic and even Anglican church buildings throughout England.

Eric Gill (1882-1940) is renowned for his sculpture, printmaking and typography. He attended Chichester Technical and Art School, received architectural training under WD Caröe, and calligraphic instruction from Edward Johnston. In 1913 Gill converted to Roman Catholicism and his theology stood at the core of the artistic communities he established at Ditchling (Sussex), Capel-y-ffin (Powys), and Piggotts in High Wycombe (Bucks). His works feature in some highly significant buildings. Gill regularly kept a diary and his own writings show that he sexually abused his daughters and sisters. It was only with the publication of a new biography of Gill in 1989 that this information reached a public audience, since when he has become a controversial figure.

J Edmund Farrell had been a resident of Piggotts. He was not solely responsible for the design of any listed buildings. He worked with Gill on some other projects, such as furnishings for the Anglican church of St Michael in Stoke Prior, Worcestershire. Perhaps his most notable individual work is a 1935 private house called Jordan's End in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, built in a modernist style.

Details

A Roman Catholic parish church constructed to the designs of Eric Gill and J Edmund Farrell in 1939.

MATERIALS: the church is constructed entirely of red brick laid in Flemish bond and the roof is covered in pantiles.

PLAN: the church has a cruciform basilican plan with a Lady Chapel and sacristy to the south and north of the chancel respectively. The altar is centrally located, beneath the crossing tower.

EXTERIOR: the church exterior is characterised by its many broad gables, walled in red brick laid in Flemish bond. Each one has a single pointed Diocletian window with brick mullions.

The west elevation has a projecting gabled baptistery with a small window of its own. The main wall has one large window and buttresses expressing the position of the aisle arcades. There are no other windows directly into the nave. The west gable is flanked by projections on the left (a porch) and right (a confessional).

The porch has an arcade of two-centred arches infilled with glazing in 1992. Its gabled north face features incised brickwork depicting St Peter casting a fishing net over those entering below. There are consecration crosses on either side of the archway facing north.

The north and south elevations are blank expanses of brickwork except for single windows in the gables and slim buttresses found on each transept.

The east elevation places emphasis on the chancel which steps forward of the gable ends of the Lady Chapel (south) and sacristy (north), each with a single window. The sacristy door is within a pointed brick arch and is formed of narrow bead-moulded oak planks. It stands beneath the pentice (or covered way) that connects to the presbytery.

Over the crossing is a square lantern tower with gables facing the cardinal points. Each face has a pointed Diocletian window. The ridges of their roofs meet at a simple metal cross in the centre.

INTERIOR: the liturgical and architectural focus of the interior is the crossing at the centre of the cruciform plan. To its west is the nave, to the north and south are the transepts, and to the east, where traditionally the altar and sanctuary would have been found, there is further seating.

The building is entered at the west end of the nave from a (now glazed) porch that adjoins the north aisle, within which are two polished limestone water stoups. The porch is mirrored on the south side by an enclosed space that now functions as a confessional with a plain interior.

The nave arcade is two bays long, formed from two-centred arches without any moulding or ornament that rise directly from the tiled floor rather than columns or capitals. The exposed roof structure has tie beams and scissor-braced trusses. Beneath the large western window, three steps below the level of the nave is a square baptistry.

The baptistry is lit by its own, smaller, window. At its centre is the font: a stone cube standing on an octagonal stem.

The aisled transepts follow the same pattern as the nave but are each only one bay in length. The east wall of the north transept has three doorways: two originally lead to either side of a confessional and one to the sacristy. The confessional is now disused and the priest’s door is blocked, but inside it retains its original pine panelling. The east wall of the south transept has a doorway connecting to the garden at the rear of the church. Next to this is the archway that leads into the Lady Chapel.

The Lady Chapel has an arcade of two very acute arches joined by an octagonal column with a wide square abacus. It has a stone altar, above which is a window depicting Our Lady of Walsingham by Chapel Studios (1994).

The east end of the church is laid out in collegiate fashion with benches facing each other. The east wall has a shelf for the tabernacle and a large stained-glass window by JE Nuttgens depicting Christ the King with the Virgin Mary and St Peter (1963).

At the centre of all these spaces is the crossing. The corners are cut away to create intersecting arcades, giving the impression that there are no piers supporting the base of the tower. At the heart of this space is a stepped platform, on which stands the altar. It incorporates the foundation stone of the church and is carved with a Latin inscription by Anthony Foster. Suspended above it is the Rood, Christ the Redeemer, the only artwork here actually produced by Gill himself. The east wall of the crossing tower has a fresco by Denis Tegetmeier showing (left) Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and (right) Christ carrying the cross. The upper level of the crossing tower forms a lantern, with clear-glazed windows on each wall. The exposed roof form shows the intersection of the roofs with crossing tie-beams and angled struts.

Tegetmeier’s 1962 Stations of the Cross are found throughout the church.

The sacristy is at the north-east corner of the plan. It is lit by a window on the east wall and contains oak joinery. The sink on the north side of the room has a tap in a carved recess of polished limestone, carved with a Latin inscription from a vesting prayer used by clergy preparing for mass: DA DOMINE VIRTUTEM (Give virtue [to my hands] O Lord).

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

468536

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Martin, C, A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic Churches in England and Wales, (2006), 187-189
Little, B, Catholic Churches since 1623, (1966)
Pevsner, N, Wilson, B, The Buildings of England: Norfolk 1: Norwich and North East, (1997), 477
Article in The Tablet, (29 April 1939), 27
Article in The Tablet, (1 July 1939), 25
Article in Architect and Building News, (8 December 1939), 226-7
Anon, , St Peter the Apostle Catholic Church Gorleston, A brief history of the Church and Parish 1888-2018, ()
Collins, J, Eric Gill: The Sculpture, a Catalogue Raisonné, (1998), 219-220

Websites
'Gorleston St Peter' historic building record: Architectural History Practice, 2020., accessed 20/05/2022 from https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/gorleston-st-peter-2/

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry