Parish

History of our Church

The mission in Willington was founded in 1877 when the first resident priest, Belgium Aloysius Hosten, arrived in the village. The church was designed by Kelly & Dickie of London and the general contractor was James Hopper of Wolsingham. The architects Claude Kelly & Archibald Campbell Dickie had a brief early-C20 partnership during which time they designed a handful of churches. The foundation stone was laid on 24 June 1903 and the building was opened on 5 July 1905 by Thomas Whiteside, Bishop of Liverpool; it could accommodate a congregation of 350 and the cost of the building was variously reported as £4,500 or £5,000. A proposed small baptistery on the north side was not completed. The benches were imported from Belgium and the plan of the church, which with its wide nave and double transepts, also hints at Low Countries’ work.

The sanctuary murals were added in c1912 by the Belgian artist Louis Beyaert who has signed and dated the central lower scene. It is thought that they were executed in Bruges and transported to Willington. Not a great deal is known about Louis Beyaert but he was either an artist who might also have been an elderly Jesuit priest, or his nephew, also an artist who specialised in copies within the family publishing house Beyaert Editions. Either way he was not a prominent artist and no other works have been identified. Stylistically the paintings are very traditional and the compositions very simple, derived from early C16 approaches. They have a graphic quality akin to book illustration and their plainness is consistent with the early Counter-Reformation approach to artistic production which sought to remove the overt and distracting artistry of Mannerism to produce something simpler and purer. The choice of subject matter (Types and Antitypes) is very long established in a Roman Catholic context and can be seen as demonstrating a particular Jesuit approach.

The church was re-ordered in 1987 by Richard Lyons of Dietz-Lyons Associates. The wooden high altar was replaced by a tabernacle plinth, with a new forward altar in front, both of stone. The oak altar rails given by the parish in 1924 were cut back leaving a short section either side of the sanctuary. The pulpit was reduced in size to serve as an ambo and a confessional provided the materials for a presidential chair. At the W end the entrance was enlarged by being extended into the church in the form of a narthex. The altar and church were consecrated by Bishop Swindlehurst on 16 July 1987. The 1904 Harrison & Harrison organ was donated to the church in 2000.