St Joseph

Introduction

St Joseph's Church in Burslem, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, was built in 1925-27 and designed by J S Brocklesby, with interior decoration by Gordon Forsyth and his daughter Moira Forsyth.

History

A mission including Burslem, Smallthorne, and Wolstanton was established from Cobridge in 1895, with Mass first said at the Hill Top Pottery in Liverpool Road. In 1896 land was acquired in Hall Street and a two-storey school-cum-church was built in 1897-8, with the church on the upper floor. Fundraising for a new church on an adjoining site began in the early 1920s, and the present Church of St Joseph was constructed in 1925-27. The church was designed by John Sydney Brocklesby, who also designed the Church of the Sacred Heart in Tunstall.

The contractors were Messrs Booth & Son of Banbury. St Joseph's was featured in The Builder in October 1926. The ceiling painting 'Christ in Glory' in the sanctuary was produced by Moira Forsyth on panels in her London studio, circa 1935-37, and restored in 1992. Consecration took place in June 1937. The church was listed at Grade II in 1993; various repairs were carried out in the early C21.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is constructed from red and purple coloured bricks, laid in Flemish bond, with dressings of brick and stone, under clay pantile roofs. The church is early Italianate or Lombardic in style, ornamented with decorative brick and tile work. The interior of the church is Byzantine in inspiration. The nave consists of three bays, each subdivided into three by monolithic columns with scalloped capitals.

The roof timbers are pine, with a deep, coffered, flat ceiling. The tie beams and flat ceiling panels are painted in primary colours in medieval-style patterns and depict the coats of arms of the Pope and the Bishop of Birmingham to designs by Gordon Forsyth. The sanctuary is dominated by the hemispherical ceiling painting of 1935-37 by Moira Forsyth of 'Christ in Glory' against a gold background. The walls are clad in coloured marbles and mosaic, while the marble reredos is richly decorated with pink and green marble columns and inset panels of pink marble and mosaics.

The baptistery to the ground floor of the campanile has a hexagonal stone font on a compound pier, ornate gilded gates, stained glass windows and a painted compartmental ceiling. Other fittings include a marble pulpit inlaid with mosaic tiles from Italy and painted wooden Stations of the Cross from Oberammergau in Germany. The building has a cruciform plan with a nave, side aisles, an apsidal chancel, and towers at the north-west and south-west. At the front are low flanking brick walls and a flight of steps, and to the east is a pedestrian gate in a short wall.

The Lady Chapel at the east end of the north aisle has a marble-clad east wall framing a ceramic panel of the Madonna del Sedia, possibly from the workshop of Benedetto Buglioni. A second side chapel, dedicated to St Joseph, is at the east end of the south aisle.