Our Lady and St Walstan

Introduction

Our Lady and St Walstan in Costessey is a Grade II listed building, first listed on 05-Mar-2010. The church was built 1834-41 by J.C. Buckler for the Jerningham family of Costessey Hall. It is an unpretentious brick building in the Gothic revival early English style accommodating about 220.

History

The Jerningham family kept the Catholic faith alive in a secret chapel hidden in the attic of Costessey Hall. A new chapel dedicated to Saint Augustine of England was built in the grounds of the Hall and opened in 1809. In 1820, the Reverend Frederick Husenbeth became chaplain of the Hall. Lady Stafford expressed a wish that Husenbeth should build a public chapel in the village on land donated by Lord Stafford.

The building began in 1834 and was completed in the Spring of 1841 with the adjoining presbytery finished at a similar time. The total cost of the church building and furnishing was £4,415 7s 10 1/4d. The church closed after Husenbeth's death in 1872 and remained closed for 38 years until it reopened in 1910.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a pantiled nave and concrete tiled chancel. The plan is of nave and chancel with a C21 polygonal west porch. The nave has seven bays with stepped side buttresses separating tall single lancets. The interior has a stone west gallery consisting of three double-chamfered arches on circular columns and responds.

The church has a circular font with an arcade of trefoils in arches to the bowl gifted from Buckler. The church has Stations of the Cross painted in oil on canvas within timber frames. The church has numbered benches made for the Church, the ends topped with a roundel carved with a rose with letters of 'ihu' for Jesu and 'Mercy' in Gothic script. One south and one north chancel lancet have glass by James Grant, 1841.

The church is innovative in style, being First Pointed Gothic, and in plan-form, having a well-defined chancel. The church has a double stone bellcote to the east nave gable, on brick plinth, lost upper stage with no bells. The church has a lower two-bay chancel with single lancets north and south separated by stepped side buttresses. The church has three stepped lancets to the east end.

The church has triple stepped lancets to the west above the single-storey west porch. The church has angle buttresses to the west end. The church has a well-defined chancel of two bays, separated on the interior by a pointed moulded chancel arch. The church has a chamfered chancel arch with roll-moulded hoodmould.

The church has a roof of principals, secondary rafters and ridge piece. The church has a panelled dado below nave windows. The church has a panelled chancel dado, raised for reredos with cresting only fully carved along the east wall. The church has a stone staircase in the south-west corner, with panelled balustrade.

The church has a north-west corner opposite partly filled in. The church has a square Cossey red brick with a recessed cross below each chancel lancet. The church has a west gallery decorated with two roundels of stiff-leaf sculpture and a hanging shield decorated with a crowned M and W. The church has one stiff-leaf roundel in the central spandrels of the west gallery.

The church has a string course and plain parapet on the west gallery. The church has five important early stained glass windows by the Grant Bros in the chancel.

Music and liturgy

The church has a small choir that anyone may join, and instrumentalists are encouraged. The church has a long history of good music based around the old Hall chapel and St Walstan’s, including late 18th and early nineteenth century motet books from the Hall. The church holds manuscript parts for Palestrina masses in the hand of Dr Husenbeth. The church's musical style ranges from very traditional to contemporary, and the Holy Week liturgy is of a particularly high standard. The Filipino Community has established the Choir of Our Lady of Penafrancia, which leads the liturgy for occasions like Easter Morning and First Holy Communions.

Parish life

The parish runs a Lectio Divina prayer group at St Walstan's, open to all. The parish runs a confirmation preparation programme for youngsters, with classes at St John's Cathedral and confirmation at Costessey. The parish hopes to re-establish the 'Gallery Band' together with a small Schola Cantorum in the future.

Regular events

In cooperation with other local churches, the church holds a United Service at all the major festivals of the year. The Garden Room hosts an annual harvest supper among other events throughout the year.

Sacraments and pastoral care

The parish provides a programme preparing children for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. Children's Liturgy is held during Sunday Morning Mass for children from Reception age up to First Communion age.