St Werburgh's Church, Chester

St Werburgh’s Church stands in Grosvenor Park Road, Chester, a Roman Catholic parish church in the diocese of Shrewsbury. It is listed at Grade II on the National Heritage List for England. The present building replaced an earlier church opened in 1799. Construction took place between 1873 and 1875 to designs by Edmund Kirby. The first Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Manning on Christmas Day 1875, and the church was formally opened the following July with a Pontifical High Mass. The church’s French Gothic style is clear in its lancet windows and reversed orientation, with the altar at the west end. Kirby’s symmetrical east front has a statue of St Werburgh above the pair of doors, set within a gabled porch. The interior arcades rest on alternating round and octagonal piers, and the nave is lit by clerestory windows. A large pulpit dates from 1895, and a rood cross hangs above the crossing. The stained glass includes seven windows by Hardman from 1927 and smaller works by Trena Cox in the narthex. A three-manual organ installed in 2004 came from a Glasgow church and replaced the original 1882 instrument. In 1913–14 Kirby added a narthex, and in 2002 the church was re-ordered and rededicated by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor. The buff sandstone exterior and grey slate roofs frame a calm interior where light falls through rows of lancets.