Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea including front walls

The Buttlands

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1450624
Date first listed:
16-Apr-2003
List Entry Name:
Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea including front walls
Statutory Address:
The Buttlands
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1450624
Date first listed:
16-Apr-2003
List Entry Name:
Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea including front walls
Statutory Address 1:
The Buttlands

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
The Buttlands

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Norfolk
District:
North Norfolk (District Authority)
Parish:
Wells-Next-the-Sea
National Grid Reference:
TF9160243425

Details

This list entry was subjected to a Minor Enhancement on the 26 October 2022 to update the description and to reformat the text to current standards

TF91604342
615/0/193

WELLS NEXT THE SEA
THE BUTTLANDS (West side)
Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea including front walls

GV
II

Church. 1928 by ASG Butler.

MATERIALS: red brick with stone dressings, pantiled roofs.

PLAN: nave, aisles, southeast nave chapel, chancel with a north chapel and south sacristy. Arts and Crafts style, an unusual blend of vernacular and East Anglian Dutch and Cape Dutch.

EXTERIOR: east front, liturgically the west, in form of single three-tier shaped gable. Canted single-storey porch with gabled parapet and double leaf plank doors set under pointed arch. One single-light window to right and left. Three-light Perpendicular window, on lintel with statuary niche containing carved Virgin and Child above. Stone Latin cross on gable apex. Aisles with one single-light and two three-light hollow-chamfered mullioned windows. The aisles are built of Fletton brick and have a tall chimney for a stove at the east end. Three segmental-headed clerestory windows made of timber, with leaded lights. The sanctuary is continuous with the nave, the chancel projects slightly. Chancel with one two-light Perpendicular window to north and south and two trefoil head west lights.

INTERIOR: four Three bays of semi-circular arcade arches on chamfered square piers. There are round transverse arches to narrow aisles. East gallery on chamfered square timber posts reached by staircase on south side. Splat baluster balustrade. The nave piers and arcade springings are of stone, but the arches and walls are of plastered brick. The panelling of the sanctuary includes an aumbry (south) and credence (north) and the sanctuary floor is of pamments and a red-veined black marble. The church has a tie-beam roof with arched braces, with king posts and queen struts. Plain hexagonal font tucked into a recess south of the entrance door. All three altars are of stone with a large predella panel of coloured marble. Stations of the Cross in plaster attached to aisle walls by M Chantrel, 1924. The Sacred Heart chapel has a flat ceiling. The chapel of Our Lady has a pitched ceiling and an arched triangular window divided into three by mullions in its end wall. The solid bench seating is original and fixed to the flat pine floor.

FRONT WALLS: attached curving brick walls sweep out north and south of entrance front. The walls include a central raised brick cross. An unusual, very fine and little-altered example of a small church of the period.

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea including front walls

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 13-Jul-2026 at 05:57:22.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

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.

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