The Lady altar

The Lady altar was blessed in Oct 1888.

In the reredos is a carved canopy and spire above a life-sized statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary portrayed as Queen of Heaven, crowned, and holing an orb in one hand with the Child Jesus on the other arm.

There are scenes of the Nativity and Flight into Egypt carved in high relief at each side; they too are under carved canopies, octagonal in shape, and supported on slim red marble pillars.

Under the altar table in the front there are three panels containing figures carved in low relief, portraying the Annunciation; on the left is the Archangel Gabriel, on the right the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the middle, a pot of lilies which symbolises the purity of Our Lady the Blessed Virgin.

The whole of the work is in Caen stone and English and foreign marble. The carving is by RL Boulton.

The floor of the Lady Chapel is paved in blue, red and buff encaustic tiles.

The stained glass window above the reredos depicts the Holy Spirit in two forms: descending as a dove with a halo with three arms of a cross which is always associated with the one of the Holy Trinity, and as tongues of fire which descended on the Disciples at Pentecost.