Although the whole church is dedicated to our Lady (St Mary), the next chapel is specially devoted to some aspects of her life, in which she totally co-operated with her divine Son’s work of Redemption. First, on entering the chapel from the transept, we see on the wall at the rear two similar brass memorials to two of our most illustrious past Parish Priests, Canon Davies and Canon Hanley.  At the front of the chapel, which, like the main chancel itself ends in a three-sided apse each with its own stained glass window, we see the altar of Caen stone. The reredos behind the altar itself bears two carved panels; the right hand panel shows our Lady being carried to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life, surrounded by rejoicing angels (which we celebrate as the Feast of the Assumption on August 15th); the left hand panel shows the following scene, when on arriving in heaven, Mary is crowned Queen of heaven by the hand of her Saviour and Son, (a feast which we celebrate on August 22nd). Above the altar, the three stained glass windows represent scenes from our Lady’s life, (from l to r): her Presentation in the Temple as a young girl (commemorated in the liturgy on November 21st); her coronation as Queen of heaven (the same scene as the left hand panel of the reredos); and the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel that she was called to become the Mother of God’s only-begotten Son, (a feast celebrated on March 25th). To the right of the altar is the oldest statue of our Lady in this Church, and one which especially commemorates the title under which she is honoured here: the Immaculate Conception. This Church, dedicated to our Lady conceived without sin, was opened the very year after Pope Pius IX had declared this doctrine to be revealed by God and bound to be held by all the faithful, for it is at the root of our own salvation by her divine Son. The feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, is kept as one of the Church’s two patronal feasts.

Back to interactive map