Dockendale Road, St Mary's RC Church

A simple centrally-planned modern church of the mid 1970s, which replaced an earlier church in a converted barn, of sixteenth or seventeenth century date (which survives nearby as the parish hall).


The presbytery of the parish was originally Dockendale Hall, a sixteenth century building (now demolished), and the church was at first housed in a converted barn of the same period, extended to accommodate a growing congregation. In the early 1970s a new church and presbytery were built adjacent to the barn, which now serves as a parish hall . The church was designed on a tight budget of £52,000 and was intended to seat 350 people. It was opened in August 1973.

The church is in a modern style with a single storey skirt surrounding a central pyramid containing a large glazed opening. The walls are faced with buff-coloured brick. The concealed main roof is felted, while the pyramid is covered with clay tiles. The principal front of the church has a vertical copper-covered fascia above a glazed timber entrance screen; otherwise the external walls are almost wholly blind.

Internally the church is a single low flat-ceilinged space with plain plastered walls centred on the sanctuary area which is lit from the pyramid above. The fittings appear to be contemporary with the church.