Our Lady and St Mary Magdalen

A grant to help fund a project which includes improving access by means of a permanent ramp leading up the steps of the North entrance and installing a lavatory inside the church, enabled by running a pipe to connect to a sewer in the main road. The church was designed by Henry Clutton, a renowned architect, for the Duke of Bedford and was erected between 1865 and1867. It was built as a Chapel of Ease to the Anglican parish church of St Eustachius. With dwindling congregations the church closed in 1948 and reopened as a Catholic Church in 1953. The building is in an Italianate manner with a tall almost-detached tower on the north side, under which is the principal entrance. There were limits to the use of the church by the community as there are no meeting rooms, and no internal lavatory.