Summary
Roman Catholic church built in 1860-1861 to the designs of George Goldie.
Reasons for Designation
The Roman Catholic Church of St Pancras, built in 1860-1861 to the designs of George Goldie, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic Interest:
* as an illustration of the continuation and revival of Roman Catholic worship in Ipswich in the C19.
Architectural Interest:
* as the work of architect George Goldie, a significant figure in the development of building for Roman Catholic worship who designed a large number of churches in the Gothic style during the 1850s and 1860s, a number of which are listed.
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 a growing architectural confidence. By the 1840s A W N Pugin’s vision of the Gothic revival as a recovery of England’s Catholic medieval inheritance fuelled stylistic debate and inspired new design for both Catholics and wider society. In 1850 Pope Pius X ‘restored’ the role of bishops, cathedrals and dioceses in England, inviting even grander architectural projects.
There was a significant expansion in the numbers of Catholics in England between 1850 (around 700,000) and 1911 (around 1.7m). This increase was accompanied by the development of a new Catholic parish system in 1908, by the construction of convents, monasteries, schools and social institutions, and by landmark buildings such as Westminster Cathedral (consecrated 1910). The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) introduced profound reforms to the Catholic church, including architectural changes informed by the Liturgical movement and the reordering of churches to reflect a greater ecumenism and communality of worship.
The story of modern provision for Catholic worship in Ipswich can be traced to 1793, when French Abbé Louis Pierre Simon started a mission in the town. Shortly after 1800 he established a chapel in a room at his house on the outskirts of town on Woodbridge Road before going on to build St Mary’s Church adjacent to it, which was consecrated on 1 August 1827.
The Church of St Pancras was constructed to provide a more central place of worship for Ipswich’s Roman Catholic community than St Mary’s and architect George Goldie (1828-1887) was appointed, he was also commissioned to design the school and convent buildings for the Sisters of Jesus and Mary at the Woodbridge Road site. Goldie was an early associate of Pugin before training under John Grey Weightman and Matthew Ellison Hadfield in Sheffield and going into practice with them. He subsequently established his own business in London from 1861. Goldie was a significant figure in the development of building for Roman Catholic worship, working chiefly in Yorkshire but also as far afield as Ireland and designing a large number of churches in the Gothic style during the 1850s and 1860s, a number of which are listed.
Goldie’s design was in the lancet style of the C13 with Italian-influenced polychrome elements. The foundation stone of the Church of St Pancras was laid by Dr Amherst, Bishop of Northampton in May 1860. The building, designed to seat 600 but capable of accommodating up to a thousand, was opened by the Bishop on 12 June 1861, when Monsignor (later Cardinal) Henry Edward Manning preached. It has been suggested that the church as built was originally meant to be part of a larger design with a tower, transepts and nave intended to stand to the west. The constraints of the site may have been a factor in the decision to build a smaller church, as the town centre location meant other buildings bordered the site. A Congregational Church had been recently completed to the west of the site in 1857 (now listed at Grade II) while on the northern side terraced housing was so close that the aisle was designed without windows. Goldie’s church originally had a spirelet on the roof above the sanctuary, although this has since been removed. The adjacent housing to the north was demolished in the 1930s leaving the church visible across what is now a car park.
The church featured a reredos by sculptor Thomas Earp (1828-1893), renowned for the Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross in London and an organ by Norman and Beard, added in 1910 but originally built for Glemham Hall in Suffolk in 1891. In 1899 the original scheme of decoration was changed and the Tablet newspaper reported that the walls were repainted in light terracotta with light green around the arches and the sanctuary in deep Pompeian red, green, and terracotta.
In 1922 a War Memorial plaque was installed made by H Grimwood working at LJ Watts of Colchester and in 1924 the Lady Chapel was redecorated by Archie Jarvis, who had previously worked on churches at Wakefield, Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Denaby Main in Yorkshire and Abbotsford in Scotland. The Tablet reported that the new chapel decoration included a floral dado of Madonna lilies, tulips, and violets below shields or panels portraying scenes in Our Lady’s life. The stained glass in the chapel may also have been replaced at that time. This 1924 scheme was later overpainted, along with most of the original polychrome banding in the arches but the latter was reinstated at some point after 1988.
The high altar was removed as part of a reordering following the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) but the reredos was retained. Paintings of four angels which had been hung over original decorative tiles in the lower section of the reredos were removed as was a stone table below the piscina and the original stone altar rails. A new black and white tiled floor was installed and a granite altar with a marble tabernacle plinth were placed on an extended step. During the Second World War Polish troops stationed in Ipswich donated a painted icon of our Lady of Czestochowa to the church. A fire damaged the west gallery and stair in 1985 and following repair the organ was restored by Bishop and Son around 2000 and moved to the southern end of the gallery in 2021.
St Pancras school was established at the site in 1871 at the south west corner of the church, connected to it through the south aisle. The school relocated in the late 1950s and the school building and existing presbytery were subsequently demolished. The current presbytery at the south western corner of the site was built in 1955 with a single storey parish room added to the west end of the nave in 1976 designed by Nottingham architects Reynolds and Scott.
The church was first listed on 6th April 1988.
Details
MATERIALS: the walls are of red brick with blue brick detail and ashlar dressings with slate-covered roofs.
PLAN: the nave and sanctuary are a single range with an apsidal east end, south and north aisles wrapping around the sides of the apse, a south porch and a single range projecting from the east end of the sanctuary on the south side. A late C20 extension projects from the western end of the nave.
EXTERIOR: the church has pitched slate roofs above a dentil cornice with ashlar coped gables and kneelers. The walls are of red brick with blue brick voussoir above the aisle and clerestorey windows and in horizontal bands running through them. The windows are of ashlar plate tracery. The porch at the western end of the south aisle has a moulded, pointed-arched doorway with pedant arcading detail above marble shafts and waterleaf capitals. A C20 half-glazed door is on the outer threshold of the porch, the original doors are inside with decorative strap hinges. The three south aisle windows have two-stage buttresses between them and consist of triple cusped lancets with three roundels above, the larger central one is cinquefoil in form. There are five clerestorey windows, four with double cusped lancets and alternating quatrefoils and cinquefoils above and the fifth window is a single lancet at the east end lighting the sanctuary. Three more lancets are at clerestorey level on the apsidal east end.
The western end of the nave has a large wheel window containing eight outer quatrefoils and a large central cinquefoil above which are a pair of lancet windows. The western end of the south aisle has a smaller quatrefoil window. There is a single storey extension to the west end of the church with a pyramidal roof which dates from the 1970s.
The pattern of clerestorey windows from the south is repeated on the north side above the aisle which is without windows. At the east end of the north aisle the Lady Chapel is lit a by round window with cinquefoil bar tracery in a small gable with a hipped roof behind.
A modest single storey extension projects from the east end of the south aisle containing the vestry and sacristy. The west side has two shouldered-arched windows with sashes and a smaller, later addition to the southern end has two more and a pointed arched door.
INTERIOR: the nave and chancel are under a single roof with tie beams carried by wall posts on corbelled stone columns with waterleaf capitals. The sanctuary is marked by a pair of tie beams carried on more elaborately decorated corbelled paired columns. The north and south arcades are of four bays with short circular piers and waterleaf capitals, supporting ashlar and red brick banded arches, the sanctuary has narrower arches on more elaborate capitals. The floor is of flagstones with nave and north aisles furnished with the original benches with simple square-topped bench ends, those in the south aisle are of C20 date.
In the sanctuary the original sculpted reredos depicts Christ and the Four Evangelists by Thomas Earp, consisting of five tracery panels filled with decorative tile below the aedicules supported on marble shafts. The central window of the apse includes a window of 1860 depicting St Pancras and is flanked by later C19 glass in the side windows. The southern arch contains a simple piscina with a cusped pointed arch while beside the northern arch, which is open to the Lady Chapel, is the stone ambry set in an arched surround with a tiled roof effect covering. Next to this is a surviving part of the original stone altar rail, the rest having been replaced by a simple timber rail on wrought iron stanchions.
The Lady Chapel is lit by a round window on the north side with stained glass with Marian monogram, coloured circles and quatrefoils and is separated from the north aisle by an arch matching those in the arcades but with simple medallioned capitals. The original Caen stone and marble altar is set on three arches with short marble columns, with a low reredos carved with rose, lily of the valley and marguerite surmounted by a metal tabernacle and statue of Our Lady. The altar rail has twisted wrought iron posts with brackets more elaborate than that at the high altar. The rest of the north aisle has blind arcading with banded round arches along the north wall. At the west end a timber staircase leads to the choir gallery dating from after 1985 underneath which is a doorway leading to the 1976 parish room.
The south aisle windows contain stained glass depicting St Martin of Porres, St Francis of Assisi from 1974 by John Lawson and an earlier one depicting Saints Thomas, Andre and John dedicated to Henry Joseph Gough who died in 1903. At the west end is a pointed-arched door which formerly lead to the school with a small piscina adjacent. At the east end are confessionals entered through shouldered-arched doorways with matching timber doors beside which is a doorway with moulded arch on columns and ornate capitals leading to the vestry and sacristy. The south aisle pews are plain ones with curved tops to bench ends of C20 date.
At the west end the timber-fronted choir gallery, partly rebuilt after 1985 includes the organ at the southern side. The wheel window in the western wall behind contains glass depicting the Descent of the Holy Spirit, dating from 2000 and designed by Danielle Hopkinson of Ipswich. Beneath the gallery is the original Caen stone font with round bowl on four clustered columns with a sculptured band of water lilies and four bosses of crystal spar around the bowl. Behind the font is a marble plaque memorialising the fallen of the First World War containing 23 names, decorated with a carved crucifixion scene and inscribed with ‘THE CATHOLICS OF IPSWICH/ HERE COMMEMORATE THEIR/ FELLOW CATHOLIC TOWNSMEN/ WHO/ BY LAND AND AIR/ UPHELD/ THE HONOUR OF THEIR COUNTRY/ EVEN UNTO DEATH/ DURING THE GREAT WAR. DOMINE PIE JESU DONA EIS REQUIEM’. On the north wall under the gallery is an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa dedicated to the crew of the Polish ‘C’ Armoured train installed between 1941 and 1943.
