Architecture / Church in running for national award

A Church that began life as a corrugated iron prefab 76 years ago is in the running for a prestigious national architecture award, writes Paul Wilkinson.

Our Lady of Lourdes, above,  was first erected in Hunger­ford, Berkshire, in 1939, but in 2006 the congregation decided it was time for a more suitable edifice. Jeremy Bell of JBKS Architects in Aston Rowant, Oxon, came up with a redbrick and timber Arts and Crafts Movement design at the centre of a curve of 14 houses, sold to finance the building.

It has been shortlisted for the 2015 Presidents’ Award for new church architecture, run by the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association and the National Churches Trust. Also shortlisted is the modern extension to the 700-year-old Augustinian priory at Clare in Sudbury, Suffolk.

The winners will be announced on 5 November at a ceremony at Westminster Cathedral Hall.