Good Shepherd history

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Castlecroft was built in the 1954 as the Church of England's answer to the large residential development of the Castlecroft estate. It, at the time was deemed the answer to the communities’ prayers, quite literally!  It is part of the Tettenhall Wood & Perton Team Ministry, along with Christchurch and Tettenhall Wood churches.

This is the Twentyman church that gets overlooked! It is tucked away among houses and only visible close up. It has no tower or lofty walls, and no fine sculptures. But it bears many of the hallmarks of Twentyman’s designs.

The whole is a composition of cubic masses, though on a smaller scale here: the sanctuary, the nave, the porch and the low side aisle – but no chapel.

The splendid porch (which is not used, so rarely seen) is faced with large oblong slabs of two types of contrasting stone and the steps are paved with a third type. Typically you enter through large double doors with large, flush-fitting handles. Inside, the porch is lit by a porthole in the ceiling, like the porch at the Crematorium (and the old Gas Showrooms in the city centre).

The sanctuary is lit by four by three grids of small square windows in the side walls; the wall behind the altar is panelled with dark wood. There are characteristic decorative features – closely spaced vertical lines in the glass of doors and windows and the familiar curved bench ends in the choir.