St. Mary's Church, Ryde

Heritage listing

Details Roman Catholic church, built between 1844 and1846, designed by J A Hansom, funded by the Countess of Clare, with a contemporary attached presbytery and later extensions, including part of the attached convent school, built between 1883 and 1884, designed by J S Hansom. MATERIALS: the CHURCH and PRESBYTERY are built of local coursed ragstone, with mostly Portland-stone dressing, and later brick additions; the roofs are mainly covered in clay tiles. The late-C19 CONVENT SCHOOL BUILDINGS are mostly ragstone and brick. PLAN: the CHURCH is orientated west to east and consists of an aisled nave (west), sanctuary (east) Shrine Chapel (south), and (north) a sacristy, first-floor founders private chapel, and Sacred Heart Chapel. There is also a porch and narthex (north-west). To the east is a courtyard bordered by linking ranges (north and south) and the PRESBYTERY (east) on a triangular plot. To the north is another courtyard surrounded by part of the late-C19 CONVENT SCHOOL BUILDINGS. EXTERIOR: the gabled west front of the CHURCH faces on the High Street and has an asymmetrical design. At the centre is a deeply recessed entrance porch topped by a carved triple two-point arch and within a cable porch. The porch is partially cut off by a square tower which diminishes to a slender upper stage and a short spire. Within the tower are lancet windows, a clock on the north side, and a statue of the Virgin Mary in a niche beneath a heavy-gabled canopy with ogee arch. Above the porch and to the left of the tower are three pointed-arch lancets in moulded frames, and the elevation is topped by a vesica. The right side of the gable has a clasped column topped by a tapering pinnacle. The gable end of the south aisle includes a moulded triple-arch arcade, a cusped triangular window a

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.