Sacred Heart
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
One of the few late 19th century Catholic churches in Northamptonshire, the church is distinguished by some highly original details and has a largely intact and lavishly finished interior.
Externally the massive ironstone tower which can be seen for miles around provides the vertical thrust against the horizontal of the long nave / chancel.
The latter has little to differentiate the spaces externally but it is punctuated with two very different treatments of smaller towers, one with an open arcade the other a needle sharp spire.
Internally the clarity of the structure, filled with light is suborned by fantastical decoration especially in the chancel area, and in the vaulted ceiling with its plaster pendants (some gilded and painted blue which was intended throughout).
In the east end you encounter a gilded rood screen, an exotic organ case, and gilded baldacchino and alter frontal.
All is designed by Comper with little else beside. His masterpiece: a counterblast to the modern movement if ever there was one.
