RC Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Therese

Heritage listing

Reason for designation: Included as a very early work by an architect of some prestige, with quality artworks by distinguished RC artists and for Group Value with the adjacent listed Greenfield House. History: The church was designed in 1954 by Francis Pollen who went on to design notable buildings at Worth Abbey and Downside Abbey. The church is in a very simple Mediterranean style since it was designed to be physically built by the nuns of the adjacent Carmelite convent (now a private house). It is built of rendered blockwork on a stone plinth with some stone details. The deeply-set doorway and battered walls give the illusion of strength, but the building has standard cavity walls. The building served both as Nun s chapel and as a parish church. The Nuns left in 1988. The refined design and careful use of simple materials recall Lutyens who was a great influence on Pollen at this early stage in his career, and had built and remodelled homes for Pollen s family. Pollen later said "I believe that churches must feel as if they had just happened as a result of divine laws of geometry, mechanics and proportion; timeless laws" Inside the church, there are two inscriptions designed by the artist David Jones (1895-1974). Jones, a catholic convert, was a personal friend of the Pollen family, and came to specialise in inscriptions in the Welsh Language. At one end is a "chi rho", and at the other words from the Mass in Welsh and Latin designed in 1956, but only painted in 1988. Two small stained glass windows of the rising and setting sun are by Paul Quail. The relief of the Assumption of the Virgin is by Jane Quail, carved in 1988. Exterior: Church in simple Mediterranean style, rendered blockwork on a stone plinth with some stone details; slate roof. Gabled entrance has belc

From Cadw under OGL v3.