THE ABBEY CHURCH
The first part
- was designed by J. Arnold Crush (1885-1936), a pupil of Sir Edward Lutyens and Sir Gilbert Scott. It was opened and blessed by Bishop William Cotter on June 20, 1933. It comprised the east end: the Lady Chapel, provisionally used as the choir, the ambulatory and the first bay of the sanctuary, provisionally used as the nave, as well as two side chapels, one of which was used as sacristy. The whole was finished off with a temporary brick west wall, and a lean-to section to accommodate more people in the 'nave'area.
Arnold Crush's aim was to produce a church whose design carried on from where Catholic church building had been interrupted in the sixteenth century. This part of the church is 125' long, 58' high and 58' wide, the Lady Chapel (Choir), is 25' wide and 36' high.
External details
- the building, which is a concrete construction, is faced with 2" hand-made Berkshire bricks, varied with bands of stone and flint squares arranged in checker pattern.
The windows are worked in St Aldhelm Box Ground Stone and the moulded copings and weatherings are in Clipsham Stone. The roofs are of re-inforced concrete, the slopes covered with green Vermont slates and the flats with asphalt.
The cross at the east end is 80' above the ground and was blessed by Abbot Sylvester Mooney on December 22, 1931.
On the main gable are carved the arms of the Abbey, flanked by the arms of the ancient Abbey of St Edmundsbury, Suffolk.
On the rain water hoppers is the former crest of the Abbey, consisting of two arrows passing through a crown, symbolising the martyr king.
Registered Charity No. 236962
revised 13/02/07
Webmaster, Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berks. RG7 5TQ
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