Church Tours

The mosaics of The Church of the Sacred Heart and St Catherine of Alexandria are considered to be among the finest in England. They were designed by Gabriel Pippet and carried out by the mosaicists Maurice Josey and Fred Oates.

Mosaics are composed of ‘tesserae’ coloured pieces of Venetian glass.The designs were carried out by Gabriel in full size cartoon form. The outlines were transferred onto the walls and then each individual piece of mosaic was fixed to the plastered walls by the mosaicists.

Gabriel Pippet spent some time in Ravenna and Rome where he was most impressed by the mosaic decoration, and this influence is clearly apparent in our church. The mosaicist, Maurice Josey, had been employed on the mosaics in Westminster Cathedral before he came to Droitwich.

When the church was first built the walls were just bare white plaster. In the next series of pictures you will see how the interior of the church used to look prior to its transformation into the fully decorated splendour that we see today.

The walls of the church are covered in marble and in mosaics portraying major themes, stories and individual holy figures.

In Autumn 2024 the church has been awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to help restore the mosaics, conserve the original drawings (cartoons) and run a programme of community engagement. As part of that programme, we are running regular monthly public tours and can arrange tours for individual groups as required.