The text of the history section is from the Parish History, written by Des Keohane. The printed version is avaliable from the Church for £3.50, and may be requested by post, at extra cost for postage. Any amendments or additions are welcomed - please send by email to Fr Andrew

The statue of the highest artistic merit is, without doubt, the statue to the Virgin Mary. Originally mounted on the north wall of the church, it is now on the east wall of Our Lady’s shrine. It was designed by Comper himself in 1950. He noted in his papers at the time that this was “my first Madonna”, and he based it on a French fourteenth century sculpture of The Virgin that he had seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum. However ,the influence of his father’s Virgin at Downside is also very evident (see Appendix 3). It was carved in pine by a Mr Davison of James Walker, a firm of church furnishers, and the basic cost was £120 (over £2,000 today). The infant Jesus, carried by Our Lady, and the crown were the work of an artist in Comper’s workshop, Mr Wigram. The crown by itself cost £20 (£380 today). For many years the statue was draped in a blue cloak, hand made by two parishioners, Hilda Glazebrook and her mother.

On the right hand side of the Sanctuary is a statue to The Sacred Heart, also carved in wood and given by the Weston family, the builders of the church. A statue of St. Anthony stands against the lower end of the south wall. There are two recent additions. A statue of St. Thomas stands at the west end of the nave, and is a recognition of the special devotion to St Thomas of the Indian families who have joined our parish community. The other, an anonymous gift, is a carving of St. Joseph the Worker. It was carved in Poland by Tadensz Pieczonka, and it is situated on the north wall close by the shrine to Our Lady. Not to be missed is the statue of Our Lady in Prayer which stands in the garden between the Church and the Presbytery. This previously stood above the main door of St. David’s Middle School in Kingsthorpe and was first erected there some fifty years ago, when the school was the Preparatory School for Notre Dame Girls’ School. It is in Carrara marble, and was purchased in Wellingborough and presented to the Preparatory School by Mrs Joy Fielder, a parishioner of St. Gregory’s, in thanksgiving for the success of her daughter Sylvia in passing the examination for entry to the senior school. After the closure of the Preparatory School it stayed with St. David’s Middle School until it closed in 2006. Joy Fielder then asked the Diocese for the statue to be transferred to St Gregory’s church. It now stands in the garden on a Haddenstone plinth given in memory of Phyllis Shaw, a tireless worker for the Red Cross, by her daughter-in-law, Rosemary. A bower has been created around the statue and garden benches provide the opportunity to sit in quiet prayer and contemplation..

the stations of the cross

The Stations of the Cross are a very fine set of carvings and are the work of Anthony Foster. Anthony Foster was a pupil to Eric Gill (1882-1940), one of the most colourful figures in early twentieth century Art—wood engraver, sculptor, typographer, draughtsman. Notably Gill did the sculptures for the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral. Foster was regarded as his most able assistant, and he worked with Gill on some of his major projects. His work followed in the same artistic tradition. An impressive workpiece by Foster is the Crucifixion on the front of Guildford Cathedral, designed by Gill but carved in stone by Foster after Gill’s death. Our stations were not commissioned by St. Gregory’s, but were bought in 1957 already complete thanks to a kind and generous gift from Miss Margaret Reid, for many years a teacher at St. Mary’s on The Mounts. Father Phillips wished to set the carvings into the walls. Foster had died so he asked our parishioner, Michael Royde Smith, a sculptor and engraver, to make this easier by removing the numbers, which originally surmounted each station. He also asked him to make one or two minor alterations to the figures. Michael had himself worked in the Gill workshops at Piggot’s in Buckinghamshire, and he had known Anthony Foster and was able to ensure that the integrity of Foster’s carvings remained intact. As a postscript to Foster’s work in our church, it is worthy of note that his son, Stephen, in 1999 designed the striking triptych to the Holy Spirit in our Cathedral. (For more on Foster see Appendix 4 )

crucifixes

St. Gregory’s has three crucifixes within the body of the church, and each one has an interesting history. The main crucifix over the altar is particularly fine and came from Italy, and it bears the distinctive blue loincloth. The corpus was acquired with the help of Sir Giles Isham of Lamport Hall, a friend of Father Phillips, and was mounted on a modern wooden cross. Later, Father Phillips added a nimbus, which sits above the head of Christ. On the south wall, above the Twelfth Station of the Cross, is a crucifix that once hung in the beautiful chapel of Notre Dame Convent and School, which stood until 1979 in Abington Street. Rescued from the Chapel it was refurbished by the late Tony Haynes, organist and choirmaster, and presented to the church by Nora Boullemier on behalf of the Notre Dame Association. A third crucifix hangs on the wall over the choir loft and came from the old Catholic church in Duston. This was carved by the late Tim Perkins and presented originally to St. Mary’s Middle School. On the closure of the school it came to St. Gregory’s. The silver processional crucifix was presented by Father John Harris. There is also an interesting crucifix “behind the scenes”. St. Gregory’s, from its earliest days, has served the Catholics at St. Andrew’s Hospital and has in its care a crucifix for use there which was given by the Honourable Violet Gibson. The late Violet was for many years a patient at St. Andrew’s and in her younger days won national fame when she shot Mussolini, superficially wounding his nose but doubtlessly more severely wounding his vanity!