Church of St Joseph, Denbigh

Introduction

The Church of St Joseph in Denbigh, in the Diocese of Wrexham, was constructed in 1968 to designs by Gwilym Parry Davies.

History

A mission in Denbigh was established by the Jesuit Fathers in 1853. A chapel was built in 1863 on land at Bryn Sychar. The contractor for the church was Hugh Jones and Son of Denbigh.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built on a square plan with baptistry and sanctuary aligned on a diagonal axis. The roof is a hyperbolic paraboloid structure with a felt cover, anchored by concrete buttresses at two corners. The fully glazed octagonal baptistery projects from the sliced-off liturgical west corner. The former Lady Chapel partition has been removed to create a large meeting room and refreshment area.

The large altar is of Trevor grey granite lit by concealed vertical window strips. Rainbow coloured dalle de verre stained glass windows are by Peter Morton of Pilkington Glass. The baptistry has a large dalle de verre window by Jonah Jones depicting the Baptism of Christ. The interior has plain white walls, a quarry tiled floor, and timber tongue and groove ceilings.

The entrance is to the left of the baptistry, with double timber doors with a shallow triangular head. The clerestory band runs below the eaves on all four walls, with three tall narrow windows in each westward wall and single lights in the eastward walls. Projecting full-height fin-like window bays flank the sanctuary, its only external expression. The windows are aluminium, and the fascias are uPVC, replaced from the original timber. Panes above the tabernacle show the mysteries of the Rosary and the Angelus bell.