CLERGY and parishioners of an iconic Droitwich church are celebrating after securing a grant of almost £190,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The cash will go towards a £260,000 regeneration project to restore the beautiful building to its former glory.
The Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria is of great historic interest – the walls are covered with some of the finest venetian glass mosaic artwork in Europe. The church welcomes thousands of visitors from across the UK and other parts of the world each year to see the astonishingly beautiful scenes.
The church was built in the style of the basilica churches of Ravenna, near Venice, between 1919 and 1921.
The mosaics were largely completed by 1932 and won national acclaim at the time.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund grant will allow the church to clean and conserve the mosaics, as well as digitising the paintings by Gabriel Pippet that were converted into the beautiful mosaics by Maurice Josey and his assistant, Fred Oates.
A visitor programme is also being made available including organised monthly tours, regular exhibitions and mosaic workshops for children.
The church is open on weekdays between 10am until 6pm and on weekends between 12pm and 5.30pm, unless there are any religious services in progress.
An informative website about the Church is available at: sacredheartdroitwich.org.uk/the-church/mosaics/ and more information is available at visitworcestershire.org/business-directory/church-of-the-sacred-heart
A spokesperson from the parish said: “We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery players for helping us to preserve this unique and magnificent church so that visitors can continue to enjoy its outstanding beauty.“
More on the church’s mosaics
The mosaics were designed by Gabriel Pippet and carried out by the mosaicists Maurice Josey and Fred Oates.
Mosaics are composed of tessarae coloured pieces of Venetian glass. The designs were carried out by Gabriel in full size cartoon form.
The outlines were transferred onto the walls and then each individual piece of mosaic was fixed to the plastered walls by the mosaicists.
Gabriel Pippet spent some time in Ravenna and Rome where he was most impressed by the mosaic decoration, and this influence is clearly apparent in this church.
The mosaicist, Maurice Josey, had been employed on the mosaics in Westminster Cathedral before he came to Droitwich.
Gabriel Pippet designed and carried out all the stone sculpture on the outside and inside the church and he also carved fourteen Stations of the Cross in oak.
The walls of the church are covered in marble and in mosaics portraying major themes, stories and individual holy figures.
