87904

 

II  

Interim Protection  

 

 

Catholic Church of St Joseph, including attached Presbytery  

 

Conwy  

Colwyn Bay  

Colwyn Bay  

Colwyn Bay  

284520  

379206  

S  

On the S side of Conwy Road, on the junction with Brackley Avenue.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Victorian  

Catholic church constructed 1898-1900 to designs by Robert Curran in a Decorated Gothic style showing the influence of A.W.N.Pugin. At the end of the C19 Colwyn Bay expanded rapidly as a seaside town and holiday resort. Catholics in the town were initially served by the mission in Llandudno but in 1895 a secular priest, Fr Rockcliff, took over in the town and started saying Mass in the lounge of the newly built Imperial Hotel on Station Road (listed 87661). The town mission was then given to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and recognising the growing population of the town and its visitors they acquired a site for a new church on Conwy Road and a benefactor to fund it. Mgr. James Lennon, a retired priest from Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire provided the funds in memory of his brother Dean John Lennon. The foundation stone for the church was laid on 10 August 1898 and the cost of construction was £12,000. Robert Curran of Warrington was the architect, and the contractor was Thomas Brown of Chester. Curran’s only other church commission was Our Lady of the Assumption, Latchford in the Diocese of Shrewsbury which shares similarities with St Joseph and is listed by Historic England at grade II (listed 1393628). The church at Colwyn Bay was intended to have a tall NW spire above the tower - this was never built, but instead the tower was capped with a castellated parapet. Several fittings including the altars and the organ were donated. The attached Presbytery is in a similar style and was also designed by Curran. It was designed to accommodate 12 priests.  

Church in Decorated Gothic style. Squared and irregular coursed cream-coloured sandstone with red sandstone dressings and slate roof. Linear E-W plan with NW corner tower. Porch in base of the tower, nave, N and S aisles, polygonal apsed sanctuary and side chapels. Stepped buttresses, moulded string courses. Steeply gabled west front with 4-light traceried pointed window within deeply moulded arch. Similar arch below to W door with flanking paired granite shafts, double doors with strap hinges. Tower with angle buttresses, moulded surround to door in N face and above niche with white marble statue of St Joseph. Top stage of tower with tall lancet windows. N and S aisles with cusped 2-light windows with hood moulds and 3-light flat headed windows to clerestory above. Each aisle terminates at the east end in a chapel with steeply pitched roof and coped gables with cross finials. Traceried 2-light windows with quatrefoils to the gables of the chapels and the apsidal sanctuary. Presbytery attached via single storeyed link at SE. Domestic gothic style, using the same materials as the church: cream sandstone with red sandstone dressings including pointed relieving arches to windows. A large building, 2 storeyed with attic, essentially comprising an L-plan with advanced gable facing Conwy Road, and entrance in hipped roof block in the angle of the two ranges. Large canted bay window in advanced gable, with paired sashes above and single window to attic. Arched doorway with similar sash windows above and to right.  

Tall 5-bay nave with pointed arches on polished red granite columns to aisle arcades. Roof of arch-braced trusses on corbels. Sanctuary roof of timber with stencilled decoration in spandrels. Chapels with elaborate carved stone altar: N Sacred Heart of Jesus by Cusack; S Our Lady by Boultons of Cheltenham, both 1900-01; high altar in similar style with intact marble altar screen. Choir and organ gallery at W, above the narthex separated from the nave by an original timber and glass screen. Baptistry at SW, now in use as a repository. Organ, from Jerusalem Chapel in Penmaenmawr by Peter Conacher and Co of Huddersfield, rebuilt by George Sixsmith in 1995. Six stained glass windows of 1912 by Harry Clarke in the S aisle. Other stained glass in sanctuary of 1925, artist unknown. S chapel with tablet in a Gothic frame dedicated to John Joseph Lennon, Rector of St Gregory’s Weld Bank, Chorley, died 12 October 1897. Interior of Presbytery retains original fittings including 5-panel doors, deep architraves and skirtings, slate and marble fireplaces, entrance lobby with screen, dog leg stair with turned balusters, chamfered newels, and mahogany panelling.  

Included for its special architectural interest as an accomplished large late C19 church in the Decorated Gothic style, forming a group with its contemporary Presbytery. The church survives little altered, with a good interior containing high quality fittings including the altars and stained glass. Group value with nearby listed buildings in the Pwllyrcrochan Conservation Area. This structure has been afforded Interim Protection under the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. It is an offence to damage this structure and you may be prosecuted. To find out more about Interim Protection, please visit the statutory notices page on the Cadw website. For further information about this structure, or to report any damage please contact Cadw.