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Listing: Locally listed in 2004. Purpose built 1892-3 as a
Catholic Apostolic church. Aisled nave, apsidal chancel with shallow
ambulatory, small spire at junction of nave and chancel. Mostly lancet
windows. Twin west porches with ironwork grilles. Good quality
orange brickwork with some dressings. Original rainwater goods and green
leaded glazing. After closing the church was used by the Welsh
Presbyterians and the Ukranian Uniats, before being taken over by its present
congregation.
Comment: This church is so enfolded with greenery that you can
hardly see it - the photo above is the most revealing photo we have managed so
far. It stands next to the Ring Road and it and its trees improve the view
from there.
A Bennett Clark photograph that gives a good
overall impression of the church. |
As to its original builders, the Catholic Apostolic Church,
Gervase Nicholas E. Charmley, of the London Theological Seminary, has kindly
written to tell us: "The Catholic Apostolic Church was an
extremely unusual dissenting body that believed that the office of
Apostle had been restored to the church.
The body was founded in 1835, and had its zenith in the second half
of the 19th Century, when it organised elaborate ritual and constructed
many beautiful buildings, most notably its London Cathedral, in Gordon
Square, and the Mansfield Place church in Edinburgh. |
The
original Apostles had been appointed by a supposed divine revelation in 1835,
and, as no further revelations were forthcoming about the replacement of the
Apostles as they died, the last Apostle passed away in 1901; this led to a
crisis, as the Apostles alone held the power of ordination to the ministry of
the church. The last ordained minister of the Church died in 1971".
The church's size, and the fact that it was included in
Bennett Clark's album of photos strongly suggest the importance of the
Catholic Apostolic church in the town at the time.
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