The first of these, completed in 1838, was the chapel of Oscott College itself – alongside Scarisbrick Hall one of the two major works of Pugin's first years as an architect. This was Pugin's first large-scale work of ecclesiastical gothic, and the freedom he had at Oscott gave him his first opportunity to achieve his vision of a complete, integrated medievalist world, with his Gothic design work extending from the building's architecture to its furnishings and metalwork and even the vestments of its clergy. In 1840 he designed St Mary's Convent, Handsworth, a small and unobtrusive building that is nonetheless exceptional for its date in its explicit medievalism. The major work of this period, and one of the most important buildings of Pugin's career, was St Chad's Cathedral, the first new cathedral to be built in England since London's St Paul's, and the first Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in England since the reformation. Opposite St Chads stood the Bishop's House (demolished). Austere and tightly composed, with ornamentation limited to decorative brickwork and a small number of stone dressings, this was the most influential building Pugin ever designed. Its simple unpretentious style based on the honest use of traditional materials marked the birth of the spirit of the Arts and Crafts movement, and its exceptional originality and adventurousness marked the birth of the idea of rational construction that was to dominate the architecture of the 20th century.