Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Roman Catholic)

Details

REDDITCH B BEOLEY ROAD (south side) SP 0467 SE Smallwood 15/13 Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (RC) 10.4.54 - II

Church. 1834 by Thomas Rickman with mid-C20 alterations and additions. Sandstone ashlar, partly stuccoed; slate roofs with bracketed eaves and gable-end parapets with kneelers. West tower with open porch, four-bay nave with transepts, two-bay chancel. No dominant style but Early English and Perpendicular influence. West tower: two stages with strings; buttresses with offsets, angled at west corners; west, north and south elevations have tall pointed arches of two chamfered orders with hood moulds leading into open porch with quadripartite vault; above archways is a rose window in the west elevation and a narrow rectangular opening in the side elevations; intermediate string forms sill string to bell chamber openings; these open- ings are large, rectangular and hollow chamfered with a mullion and transom dividing them into four cusped ogee-arched louvred lights; above is an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. Nave: chamfered plinth and moulded plinth band; buttresses with offsets at bay divisions, angled at west and transept ends; west end has two lancets flanking tower; within porch is a pointed doorway with a square head and blind tracery in the spandrels (all largely restored); windows in side elevations are all cusped lancets beneath square heads; 4-centred archway with double doors at west end of north elevation. Single-bay transepts also have cusped lancets beneath square heads in their west elevations (that in the south transept is blind); south transept gable end has three lancets grouped beneath a pointed head and a louvred opening above in the apex; both transepts have C20 single-storey additions to their west side elevations with gable-end parapets above rectangular lights and doors in their outer side elevations. Chancel: angled buttresses with offsets at east end; 3-light east window with sill string and louvred opening above in apex; rose window in each side elevation; the north side rose window and the north end and east side of the north transept are obscured by a later addition (not of special architectural interest); door with cambered head in south elevation of chancel. Interior: plastered throughout with painted decoration. At west end of nave is a 4- centred archway of two chamfered orders, the inner of which is supported on corbels; the jambs of the archway are pierced with a lower rectangular opening and upper cusped lancets. Chancel and transepts have plaster quasi- vaulting with thin ribs and large bosses. Nave has truncated queen strut trusses with trefoil detailing. Windows all have hood moulds with returns. Gallery at west end with blind cusped pointed arcading. This modest and simply detailed church is of particular interest in that it has more in common with the contemporary Commissioners type of churches than with the more archaeologically accurate examples of Rickman's work (BoE, p 248).

Listing NGR: SP0475467475

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

156489

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968), 248

End of official list entry

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