Our Lady Help of Christians and St Denis, Torquay

Introduction

The church has been almost entirely unaltered since its completion. The tower was built on the site of the former Southampton Villa and completed in 1878, though the spire was not finished until 1881.

History

In 1867, William Potts-Chatto offered to build the community a church to Our Lady and St Denis in thanksgiving for his infant son Denis's recovery from a serious illness. The church was solemnly opened by Bishop Vaughan in February 1881. The 175 foot spire was completed in June 1881.

Mr and Mrs Potts-Chatto contributed the carved Stations of the Cross and the organ, and Mr Potts-Chatto carved a life-size Crucifixion from timber brought from the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. The church was elevated to Grade I status on 14 January 2014. The repair and redecoration of the Baptistry and around St Dominic's altar has been completed, and Heritage Glass has also replaced the window bars.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of rock-faced local grey limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and freestone dressings, under slate roofs. The church is aligned north-east (ritual east) to south-west, with an apsidal east end, a chancel of three bays, a nave of seven, and a square tower at the west end flanked by the baptistery and Lady Chapel. The nave arcades have quatrefoil piers with naturalistic foliage-carved capitals, all different, and double-chamfered arches. The sanctuary has a doorway to the south leading to the former nuns' choir, and on the north side the nuns' altar dedicated to St Dominic.

At the eastern end of each aisle is an altar, that to the north to St Joseph, to the south, the Sacred Heart. Off the south aisle is the Lady Chapel, separated from the nave by an arcade of two Early English columns and a stone screen, rising through two storeys. Off the west end of the north aisle is the octagonal baptistery, full-height, with a vaulted ceiling with moulded ribs springing from foliate capitals on attached shafts. The base of the tower is supported on four columns, with two rows of three subsidiary columns between, supporting stone vaulting, with a stone balustrade to the organ loft above.

The church retains a very complete set of lavish stone fittings, mostly designed by Joseph Hansom and contemporary with the building of the church. The sanctuary includes a richly-carved reredos with crocketed pinnacles, stepped gables and statue niches with images of Our Lady and St Denis; the High Altar is carved with the Last Supper. The pulpit is a stone drum design, richly-carved with piercing and geometric details, and variously-coloured marble shafts. The altar rails are brightly-coloured painted metal, with floral and foliate motifs and extensive scrolling.

The font, of 1881 by Joseph S Hansom, is sexafoil, of red marble on six stocky shafts with carved inscriptions. Stained glass includes east and west windows by the Hardman Company.

The high altar is covered in Caen stone, and each pillar in the nave has a carving of a different flower or foliage grown at the home of the Potts-Chatto family. At the west end of the church are statues to St William and St Agnes, patron saints of the founder and his wife. The altar of St Joseph was given by Canon Lapotre and the altar to the Sacred Heart by Miss Longlands, both in 1889. The pulpit was the gift of Miss Margaret Lloyd in memory of her sister.

The large crucifix on the south side was carved by Mr Potts-Chatto himself in wood formerly located in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Beneath the Lady Chapel is a burial crypt for members of the Potts-Chatto family.

Music and liturgy

The 1884 William Hill & Son organ, designed by William Rockstro, a renowned composer who studied under Mendelssohn and served as master of ceremonies in this church, has been renovated. Sunday Masses and Masses on Holy Days of Obligation are accompanied by organ and choir music, and occasionally enhanced by instrumentalists.

The parish used ZOOM to celebrate Morning Prayer every Tuesday during the first lockdown in 2020. The sisters of Les Filles de la Croix worship regularly with the parish, as part of the Evangelisation initiative implemented throughout the Diocese. The parish celebrates the sacrament of Confirmation bi-yearly, with candidates enjoying a preparation that regularly includes a weekend retreat at Buckfast Abbey.

Regular events

The flower team refreshes the blooms around the church and on the altar on a weekly basis. Parishioners frequently gather for 'Coffee after Mass' on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday mornings in St Dominic's room. During the summer months, the parish holds as many barbeques as can be arranged in the presbytery garden after Sunday Mass.