St. Mary and St. John

Introduction

The church was built between 1816 and 1819 by John Palmer, with carving and sculpture by Thomas Owen.

History

John Francis Butler, then owner of Pleasington township, built the church as a thank offering, said to have cost £23,000. The church is ashlar with a low-pitched slate roof, in a mixed Gothic style, with nave, aisles and polygonal apse. The church is an exceptional form of Catholic chapel for the period before Emancipation, with very elaborate use of Gothic and sculpture of great originality.

Architecture and furnishings

The west front features a C12-style portal of three orders with tablet flower and crocketed hoodmould, above which three statues on corbels sit within a giant arch decorated with dogtooth and small carved figures. The west front is crowned by a small parapet pierced with quatrefoils, an elaborate wheel window, and octagonal turrets with three-stage pinnacles linked by zig-zag openwork parapet meeting a crocketed cross on the apex. The side-offices bear elaborately carved niches lettered THOMAS OWEN SCULPTOR and JOHANNES PALMER ARCHITECTUS, the latter with a hoodmould whose figured stops portray the architect's wife and his son.

The gable above the wheel window carries three lines of incised uncial lettering. The short polygonal apse has buttresses at the angles and tall five-light Perpendicular windows with transoms. The interior is high and luminous, with rib-vaulted roofs to nave and aisles with carved bosses in the centre, and a four-bay arcade of shafted piers and moulded arches with dogtooth ornament. The west end has a generous internal narthex presenting a two-bay arcade to the nave, with the supporting column rising from the centre of a pedestalled stoup and carrying a raked choir gallery with an organ at the top.

The east end has a traceried wooden communion rail on segmental steps to the sanctuary, which is framed by a very high arch and has on each side of the altar a large carved relief depicting the Beheading of Saint John and the Magdalen. At the south side, the priest's door is set in the centre of an elaborate carved stone screen.

Parish life

The parish has a church hall available for rent on a regular or one-off basis. A fund raising committee has been established to raise money for the parish.

The parish has a significant number of Eucharistic Ministers who help distribute Holy Communion during Mass and to the housebound or in care homes. The parish has a small number of Altar Servers. The parish has volunteers who clean the churches on a weekly basis. The parish produces a weekly newsletter and maintains a website.

The parish holds a significant number of documents including registers of baptisms and weddings, old newsletters, financial records, and plans of the buildings. The parish has an archivist with details of who is buried where in the graveyard at Pleasington Priory. The parish has links with CAFOD, Caritas, Aid to the Church in Need, and The Walsingham Association.

Children prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation at age seven with a team of parish catechists. First Communions are mostly made by children aged 7 or 8, with preparation undertaken in school. Confirmation is celebrated by the Bishop when children are around the age of 11 to 14. Parish catechists assist with the sacramental programme and Children's liturgy.