St Pancras Church, Ipswich

Coordinates: 52°03′20.7″N 1°09′31.8″E / 52.055750°N 1.158833°E / 52.055750; 1.158833 (St Pancras Catholic Church)
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St Pancras, Ipswich
Saint Pancras
Ipswich Deanery
Clergy
Bishop(s)Alan Hopes
Priest(s)Joseph Welch

Saint Pancras is an active Roman Catholic parish church serving the town centre of

Catholic revival in the nineteenth century, and was the target of anti-Catholic riots soon after completion.[1]

Building and dedication of the church

An interlaced "S" and "P" from an original front pew from the 1860s

The construction of St Pancras was largely financed from the estate of L'Abbé Louis Simon. Abbé Simon was a French émigré priest who came to Ipswich in 1793, during the French Revolution, and became the first Catholic priest to celebrate Mass regularly in Ipswich since the Reformation.[2] Simon was from an aristocratic family in Normandy and sold property he inherited in Normandy to fund church building in his adopted home of Ipswich.[2]

The church was built by

Diocese of Northampton. St Pancras was consecrated by the Bishop of Northampton, Francis Amherst, with the future Cardinal Manning preaching the sermon.[2]

History

Main altar with reredos and statues of Christ and the Four Evangelists

Two years after the church was consecrated, in 1863, St Pancras was the target of a series of

Mayor of Ipswich enrolled 200 special constables, although the riots were credited with creating sympathy for the church and the Catholic community among local dignitaries.[1][2] In 1871 the church became a separate parish, for the first ten years under the care of the Pallottines, an Italian order.[7] In 1885 St Pancras merged with St Mary's to become a single parish, this time based in the more central St Pancras.[7]

In 1919 St Mary's split from St Pancras to become its own parish.

Polish community in Ipswich although later the parish of St Mary became the pastoral centre of the Polish community.[11]

In 1976 St Pancras, with all the other Catholic parishes in Suffolk, was transferred to the new

Diocese of East Anglia.[12] On Christmas Day 1985 the church was badly burned in an arson attack which meant that the choir loft and organ had to be rebuilt.[1]

Architecture and fittings

St Pancras is a

grade II listed building[3]
built of red brick with a slate roof.

The main altar is at the east end of the church. Behind the altar are

tabernacle lamp
between the main altar and the Lady Chapel.

First World War

The

plate tracery style that depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit,[6][3] which was completed by the Ipswich artist Danielle Hopkinson for the Millennium.[14][13]

Beneath the choir loft and behind wrought iron gates is a

Second World War.[17]

The

Venetian style where the arches are alternately red and white brick. The interior was once multi-coloured but is now mostly white-washed.[3] There is an elaborate wooden roof[3] and the wooden pews are original.[3]

To the west of the church is the

presbytery with a small parish garden in which there is a copy of the statue of Our Lady of Ipswich. There is also a parish centre built in the 1970s.[13] The original presbytery was built in the eighteenth century and demolished in a road-widening scheme by Ipswich Borough Council.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d St Pancras celebrates 150 years, BBC website
  2. ^ a b c d e f g From the Church archives, St Pancras parish website
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1264101)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 20 April 2007.
  4. ^ a b St Pancras, Official parish site
  5. ^ St Pancras, Ipswich, suffolkchurches.co.uk, Simon Knott
  6. ^ a b St Pancras Catholic Church, from ukattraction.com
  7. ^ a b c Centenary Guide and Souvenir, St Pancras Church Ipswich, 1961, published by St Pancras Church
  8. ^ Old church of St Mary, Ipswich, Suffolk Churches
  9. ^ St Mark, Ipswich, Article from the Suffolk Churches website
  10. ^ New at Ipswich, from the Catholic Herald
  11. ^ "THE POLISH CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN IPSWICH" (PDF).
  12. ^ "Diocese of East Anglia". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  13. ^ a b c d Church History, St Pancras Church website
  14. ^ St. Pancras, Public Commissions, Danielle Hopkinson business website
  15. ^ From the account of the unveiling in the East Anglian Daily Times, 13 November 1922. ST PANCRAS RC CHURCH, from the War Memorials Archive
  16. UK National Inventory of War Memorials reference 4634, ST PANCRAS RC CHURCH, from the War Memorials Trust
  17. ^ "Our Lady of Czestochowa, from the crew of the Polish 'C' Armoured Train - War Memorials Online". www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk.
  18. ^ "Catholic Herald - Archives".

External links

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