Sacred Heart

Introduction

Sacred Heart in Tunstall, within the Archdiocese of Birmingham, is a Romanesque Basilica style church with rusticated stone and copper domed roofs.

History

During the Depression, much of the labour of building the church, and some of the internal decoration, was said to have been provided by the parishioners themselves.

Architecture and furnishings

The church has a north west tower with a round-arched doorway and tiers of blank arcading. The west door has a giant archway with chevron moulding, frieze and round-arched window above. The roof is formed by a series of three domes. The church has an apsidal east end with ambulatory.

The interior has arcades of clustered, banded shafts. The main altar and side altars are marble, richly decorated with inlay and mosaic. The church is bounded on the north by a low stone wall with wrought-iron railings with geometric Art Nouveau detailing. A decorated round stair turret stands at the south west of the church.

Deep buttresses divide the nave into bays over the flat-roofed aisles, with three round-arched windows in each aisle bay and a tier of three-light clerestory windows above. Pilaster buttresses at the angles form small pinnacles to the parapet. The stepped gable features interlaced arcading. The interior includes simply carved bench ends.