St. Joseph and St. Francis Xavier

Introduction

Saint Joseph and Saint Francis Xavier in Richmond is a Grade II listed building, first listed on 19-Jan-1993. The church was built in 1867-8 and designed by George Goldie. It is in Gothic Revival style with a single nave and chancel with curved apse aisles, western porch and south western tower.

History

In 1866 Father William Strickland became Parish Priest and appointed George Goldie to design the new church. The new church was opened in 1868 and was very expensive, putting the parish into massive debt. In 1961 the care of the parish and its properties were transferred to the Diocese of Middlesborough. From 1st January 2024, four catholic churches were amalgamated to form The Dales Catholic Parish.

The first Catholic Church in Richmond after the Catholic Relief Acts came into being with the arrival in 1794 of Fr Thomas Austin Lawson OSB, a Benedictine monk of Downside. The parish emerged out of the gentry chaplaincy to the Strickland family begun around 1737. A chapel was built by Sir John Lawson in 1806 or 1809 and was replaced by the present church in 1867-8 (architect George Goldie).

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. The interior has a nave with 4 bay east arcade and 5 bay west arcade, with circular piers and stiff-leaf capitals. The church has a fine ashlar and marble curved reredos, and pulpit.

The pulpit was a gift from a Mrs Fielding in memory of her husband Gabriel, a local solicitor. Original C19 pews survive in the nave. The church has some good quality late C19 stained glass. The church has a projecting vestry to the east with an external gable stack and a circular stair turret with a conical lead roof and finial.

The north apsidal end has three large, 3-light pointed arch windows with cinquefoil and trefoil tracery. The church has wooden roofs supported on curved stone corbels. The church has later wooden reredoses to the aisles. The church has a chamfered plinth, flush ashlar quoins and cill bands, and raised coped gables with kneelers and finials.

The south entrance front has a projecting single storey lean-to porch with five pointed arches, containing 3 traceried windows and single flanking doors. Above the porch are 3 tall chamfered lancets and a quatrefoil tracery circular window above. To the right of the entrance front is a 2 light pointed arch window. The tower has a square base rising to an octagonal bell-stage with a short octagonal stone spire with 4 lucarnes.

The lower stages of the tower have small stair lancets, and the bell-stage has 4 narrow lancet bell openings. The clerestory has 5 circular windows to each side with chamfered quatrefoils. The aisles have pairs of chamfered lancets and alternating buttresses. The north west bay has panel tracery and a dividing slender pier.

Parish life

St Mary's Primary School is a small school on the eastern outskirts of Richmond with about 210 pupils. St Francis Xavier is a joint Catholic and Church of England school for children up to age 16, with about 400 pupils.

The parish has SVP, RCIA Group, Prayer Group, Rosary Group, Liturgy of the Word for Children, and Gospel Reading Group. The parish serves Friary Hospital, local nursing homes, and St John of God Hospitaller Services at Scorton and Catterick Village. The church has full facilities for wheelchairs, including access and a suitable toilet.