St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church

Freestanding Modern style rectangular-plan single-cell Roman Catholic church, built 1973, having boiler house attached to centre of rear elevation. Re-roofed and renovated in 1992. Half-hipped slate roof with truncated gable elevation to front and gablet at apex. Elongated metal cross to centre of ridge with splayed fins to upright. Concrete ridge tiles, hidden gutters to east and west sides, pressed metal rainwater goods elsewhere. Slate-clad fascia to lower eaves on side elevations, carried onto front gable and rising from both sides at an angle terminating at tall central stone-clad panel. Angled slate fascia forms heads of graduated vertical windows flanking central panel. Entrance doors in recessed bays to either side with hipped slate canopies and fixed overlights also truncated by rising angle. Small tripartite windows in end bays with concrete sills. Rendered walls. Similar angled slate-clad fascia to rear with central chimneystack and wider spaced vertical windows. Vertical band windows to side elevations with concrete transom at waist level. Tinted and stained glass windows. Timber framed double entrance doors with raised panels. Plastered T-plan interior with lobbies and ancillary spaces in corners behind main elevation. Timber sheeting to central east-west section of ceiling with exposed laminated timber beams. Timber and glass door screens. Timber confessionals having metal weave ventilation panels above and to octagonal opening in door. Steps to altar area. Timber pews, altar, and lectern. Low stone-clad masonry boundary walls with flat concrete coping and metal gates. Steel belfry to south with metal slatted enclosure surrounding bell. Graveyard to north.

A Modern style church that is one of a succession of churches in the parish. A mud-wall church of 1785 at Termon Cross was replaced in 1810 by a thatched chapel that was located to the north of the current church, which was again replaced in 1870, with a belfry and curate’s house added in 1883. The bell, baptismal font, 1810 date-stone, and altar bell, all form part of the present church. It is a striking building in the Modern style favoured by the Roman Catholic Church in the decades after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Set on a prominent roadside site, its slate roof evokes the scale of historic churches while also echoing the drumlins of the surrounding landscape. The well-lit interior is laid out in the the traditional T-plan, but the congregation is brought closer to the celebrant in the spirit of the new liturgy. The church is a strong landmark in the area and a defining architectural feature of its rural landscape setting.