St. Marie on the Sands

Introduction

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin designed the original church, which was built in 1841.

History

The church was enlarged in 1852 and then rebuilt in 1875. In 1924 the facade was rebuilt in replica. At the west end, a five-sided organ and choir gallery is supported on cast-iron columns. The sanctuary contains an elaborate carved reredos.

Architecture and furnishings

The church's facade is of Portland stone with sandstone dressings, and the roofs are steeply pitched with three spans. Inside, the seven-bay aisle arcades have quatrefoil columns carrying two-centred double-chamfered arches. The plan comprises a nave on a north-east/south-west axis with side aisles under parallel roofs and a 3-sided apse. The facade has three unequal gables, with the nave gable featuring a full-width projected rectangular porch with a statue in a niche flanked by gabled entrances with 2-centred arched doorways.

The exterior includes a pair of flying buttresses rising from the sides of the porch, under the left of which is a semicircular vice with semi-conical roof. The nave gable has three unequal lancets between the buttresses, with the centre one shorter to allow for a rose window above, and a gabled bellcote. The flanking aisle gables each have a 2-centred arched 3-light window with tracery. At the sides, the aisles have 2-centred arched 2-light windows and the nave has segmental-pointed 2-light clerestory windows. The interior has a collar-truss roof with king-struts, angle-struts and long straight braces from the wall posts.

Sacraments and pastoral care

The parish advises anyone going into hospital as a routine admission to request the Sacrament of the Sick from their parish priest before being admitted, and in an emergency to ask ward staff to call the priest on call. The parish holds a weekly prayer for all those needing Hospice and Palliative Care Services and for the patients, families, staff and volunteers of Queenscourt. The parish runs a new toddler group for parents and children.