St Mary's Church, Derby
Encyclopedia
St Mary's Church is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. A Grade II* listed building, it stands on Bridge Gate overlooking St Alkmund's Way. The church was designed by architect A. W. N. Pugin

History

The church was designed by Augustus Pugin in 1837 in his first expression of his Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 style. Construction began in 1838 and was completed in October 1839 at a cost of £1,400.

Eight years later St Alkmund's Church
St Alkmund's Church, Derby
Saint Alkmund's Church was a Victorian Church, which stood in a Georgian square between Bridgegate and Queen Street in Derby; this was the only Georgian square in the city.-History:...

 was built on a site directly opposite St Mary's. The position of the larger St Alkmund's was such that the view of St Mary's from King Street was totally obscured. The church was partially restored in 1927 when it was discovered that damp had taken a hold to much of the plasterwork. St Mary's was enlarged slightly in 1932 with the building of the Lady Chapel and several pieces of stonework were added to both the interior and the exterior of the building.

The late 1960s brought sweeping changes to the Derby landscape. St Alkmund's Church and its churchyard were demolished in order to the make way for the inner ring road, exposing St Mary's to full view for the first time in 120 years.

A second restoration was undertaken in the late 1990s. This included re-roofing of the Lady Chapel and extensive cleaning of the interior and exterior of the church.

In 2007 the bridge that allows pedestrians to cross the A52 (St Alkmund's Way) was replaced with a wider design at a cost of £1.3m.

External links

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