Catholic Church of Our Lady and Saint Laurence

Detached four-bay double-height Catholic church, dated 1826, on a cruciform plan comprising two-bay double-height nave with single-bay double-height transepts to north and to south, and single-bay double-height shallow chancel to west extending into single-bay single-storey sacristy to west. Extensively renovated, 1980, with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced porches added to transepts. Pitched roofs on a cruciform plan (pitched to sacristy; gabled to porches) with replacement artificial slate, 1980, clay ridge tiles, cut-limestone bellcote to gable to east (with panelled base on stepped consoles having cut-stone coping, panelled piers flanking aperture with cast-iron bell, and stepped coping with cross finial to apex), and replacement aluminium rainwater goods, 1980, on timber eaves. Painted replacement roughcast walls, 1980, with cut-stone date stone/plaque. Round-headed window openings with replacement concrete sills, 1980, and replacement fixed-pane timber windows, 1980, having leaded stained glass panels. Square-headed door openings with replacement timber panelled doors, 1980. Set back from road in own grounds with tarmacadam grounds to site having painted replacement roughcast boundary wall, 1980, to perimeter of site.

A well-composed, middle-size church of modest appearance, the reserved treatment to the exterior attesting to a period of construction pre-dating Catholic Emancipation (1829). Although much of the original fabric has been lost as a result of over-zealous renovation works in the late twentieth century, most of the original massing remains intact, and the church forms an important anchor site in the centre of Fourmilewater.