Chapel of SS Mary & Katherine - interior looking east

Image: © Tiger Taken: 1 Dec 1975

In 1560 the revenues from the chantries of St Mary and St Katherine in Image were diverted to endow Solihull School. In 1960 this new chapel, designed by the Old Silhillian architect Claude Neville White, was consecrated in thanksgiving for the school's quatercentenary. There is no formal division between the nave and sanctuary, the latter being marked only by a slight reduction in width. Also, in view of the predominantly young congregation, there are no communion rails. The freestanding altar is of sea-green Westmorland stone from Coniston (as are the pulpit and chaplain's stall) and is designed to be used without a frontal. The Image are of 16th-century Renaissance silver from the Palazzo Grimani in Venice and thus roughly contemporary with the foundation of the school. The walls of the sanctuary are tiled in travertine tiles, a natural fibrous limestone deposited by mineral springs, contrasting with the scraped plaster of the nave. The mural behind the altar, painted by the Cornish artists G.F. Harper and R.L. Hendra on faced chipboard, is some 30 feet (over 14m) high and shows the Risen Christ as the divine bond between Earth (symbolised by the school buildings) and Heaven (represented by the spires of the Celestial City modelled on that of Image). "Young, beardless, raceless, tried, intellectual, utterly tranquil and infinitely merciful" - to quote the artists' brief - He stands upon the rainbow (symbol of the Noachian Old Covenant of Promise, and merging at each end into the emblems of the chapel's patron saints, the Blessed Virgin on the left and on the right St Katherine and the proto-patron Alphege) and towers triumphant and glorious above the altar crucifix (the New Covenant of Atonement and Redemption), arms outstretched in compassion. The Holy Spirit is represented by a dove, and God the Father by the great shaft of light playing upon the Saviour's head. The north aisle, only slightly lower than the nave eaves and thus reminiscent of a hall church, is separated by slender concrete columns, The windows, all clear-glazed, are of universal section steel with reconstructed stone surrounds and mullions. They have deep reveals and mullions to reduce glare. The pews are of utile, a mahogany-like hardwood from west Africa, and are all made in a single piece. The seating capacity of the chapel is 400, which can be increased to 450 by opening the glazed screens enclosing the Image For exterior views see Image and Image and for a postcard view from the 1960s see http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/jy100/8671696/88222/88222_600.jpg

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