St Mary's Church or St Mary the Immaculate Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

, Lincolnshire, England. It was built in phases from 1833 to the 1960s and initially designed by E. J. Willson in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, and later by

Gerard Goalen Gerard Thomas Goalen (16 December 1918 – 2 January 1999) was a British architect who specialised in church architecture and was influenced by continental models and the Liturgical Movement. He was one of the most important architects of the C ...

. It is located on the corner of North Parade and Barrowby Road to the north of the town centre. It is a Grade II listed building.Roman Catholic Church of St Mary

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

, retrieved 13 May 2022

History

Construction

In 1830, Thomas Tempest bought the site of the current church. He also paid for the church's construction. In 1831, the foundation stone was laid. In 1833, the first

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

was celebrated. The architect was E. J. Willson who designed the church in the

and linked to the presbytery, which was built in 1829. In 1833, a school was built. In 1859, the school was rebuilt. In 1928, the school was relocated. In 1884, the western

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

was added.

Grantham - St Mary the Immaculate
''Taking Stock'', retrieved 13 May 2022

Extension

From 1964 to 1965, the church was extended northwards. The old

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

became the

baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptist ...

. The entrance was moved to current location. The architect was

. The mixture of classical and modern, according to

created an "attractive working church", with the modern additions being "of merit".

Parish

St Mary's Church is its own

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. It has two Sunday Masses at 6:00pm on Saturday and at 9:30am on Sunday.

References

External links