St Agatha

St Agatha's is a Grade I Listed building, rated by Historic England as a Major Parish Church.

It was completed in 1901 and is a fine example of Late Gothic revival architecture and Arts and Crafts design, and the masterpiece of its architect, William Bidlake. It is a Church of England church but also used for worship by a Russian Orthodox congregation. 

The building has had an eventful history; the sanctuary end was completely destroyed by a German bomb in 1940 and the entire roof was lost in a fire in 1957. From 1940 to 1960 parts of the building were bricked off and the sense of lightness that the interior now has was temporarily lost. The church was slightly damaged by the Birmingham Tornado on 28 July 2005. 

Two problems have stopped it from being as useful to its community or accessible as such a great building should be: no modern hygienic kitchen and no disabled-access WC.To put these into such a fine building without damaging it was a challenge, but with local fundraising and generous grants including one from the NCT we have achieved this - the facilities were put in during July and August this year, and on 26 September our new Parish Priest was Licensed and we had a great celebration of a new lease of life for what the poet John Betjeman called 'the finest parish church in Birmingham'.