| Description | In 1859 Henry Augustus Rawes, an Oblate of St Charles, began his search for a site on whch to build a church for the "poor and populous district of Notting Dale". Rawes chose Pottery Lane as the site of his church, which was built at his expense in 1860, with the presbytery and school added in 1863.
The church was designed in French Gothic Revival style by Henry Clutton and the contractors were Jackson & Shaw. Shortly after its completion, Clutton’s young assistant, John Bentley, was asked to extend the church and supervise its internal decoration and furnishings. Bentley designed numerous fittings, stained glass, metalwork and textiles, and was the first to be baptised in the font he designed, when he converted to Catholicism in 1862. The church was his first independent Catholic commission, and Bentley took his middle name, Francis, from the dedication of the church.
By 1861, the church was already proving to be too small and Fr Rawes asked Bentley to design additions on an adjoining piece of land. Bentley added the presbytery, school, the baptistery and the southwest porch, and also supervised the interior decoration and designed many furnishings. The side altar to St John was designed in March 1861 and is the first collaboration of N. H. J. Westlake and his friend Bentley. In 1863, Bentley designed the Lady Chapel altar, the high altar and reredos, reliquaries and a confessional. In 1864, unfinished stonework in the porch was carved, the chancel further enriched with marble and the sanctuary completed with painted decorations by Westlake. In 1865, Bentley donated the font cover, as a thanksgiving for his conversion.
Also in the 1860s, Bentley designed numerous furnishings, including a jewelled monstrance (now in the Birmingham Art Gallery), an iron offering stand, a processional cross, a music stand, candlesticks, vestments and frontals. Between 1865 and 1870, Westlake painted the Stations of the Cross. In 1870, Bentley designed a canopied niche for a statue of Our Lady (by Theodore Phyffers). Bentley and Westlake designed the stained glass windows which were made by Lavers & Barraud (after 1868 Lavers, Barraud & Westlake). In 1872–73, Westlake further decorated the sanctuary (of which two angels survive on the sanctuary ceiling). In 1882, church and presbytery were altered when a tribune was constructed over the baptistery at the west end of the north aisle and an additional room constructed in the presbytery. |Many of these fixtures and fittings were removed and sold in the 1980s, and the correspondence in the files covers the details relating to this.
After Bentley’s death, his son Osmond continued the work, notably completing the baptistery in 1907 (with carving by Hardman) and 1910, when he added grilles and doors, and in 1913 redecorating the Lady Chapel. In 1917, F. A. Walters added a piscina in the sanctuary. The same year, statues of St John and St Joseph by the Belgian sculptor Blanchard were given to the church. In 1926, G. N. Watts cleaned and redecorated the church. In 1960, the church was restored and redecorated by A. J. Sparrow.
Osmond Bentley was also responsible for designing and building two schools for St Francis of Assisi on properties in Treadgold Street purchased by priests from the Oblate of St Charles. Building work began in 1913 and was completed in 1915. In 1982, the girls’ primary school moved from the 1861 school building to a site in Treadgold Street, where it was combined with the infants’ and boys’ schools. The school building then was converted for use as a parish centre and opened by Bishop Konstant on 4 October 1982. At the same time, a new statue of St Francis of Assisi by Arthur Fleischmann was blessed. Between 1982–84, the church was reordered and redecorated at the instigation of parish priest, Fr Oliver McTernan, by architects Williams & Winkley. The altar rails were removed in order to install a forward altar. In 2008, a new stained glass window by Benjamin Finn at the west end of the nave was blessed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor. In 2010, parish priest Fr Michael Johnston, comissioned restoration work to the church. Paint was removed from the internal stonework, the nave carpet removed and oak floor boarding installed; the encaustic tiles in the sanctuary were also repaired and reinstated, and a new wooden floor installed around the forward altar.
In 2019-2020, major restoration work was carried out under the aegis of parish priest Fr Gerard Skinner, who published a book together with Peter Howlett (included in the collection) to commemorate the project and record the history of the church. |