Church Heritage Record 610385

Nave of five bays with passage aisles, two-storeyed transepts opening from the broader eastern bays; porches at the west end of each aisle and against the west wall of each transept.  Chancel with north chapel and south staircase and vestry, the staircase giving access to the room called the library on the upper floor of the south transept and to a chapel in the crypt below the chancel.

Nave and chancel 137'½ft by 33½ft; transepts 19ft by 22½ft; aisles 4½ft wide; crypt chapel 46ft by 34ft.

The church was built to the designs of Peter D Stonham & Son and Fenning, architects, of Eastbourne, with Tatchell and Wilson of London acting as consultant architects. The builders were Mark Martin & Son of Eastbourne and the Quantity Surveyor was S.C. Addison of Eastbourne.  The foundation stone was laid by Princess, Alice, Countess of Athlone, on 2nd October 1935, and the church was consecrated by Bishop Bell of Chichester towards the end of February 1938. During the War the roof was stripped by blast and the church suffered other damage. War damage repairs were carried out by W A Forsyth and the church was re-hallowed in June 1950.

The church is a large-scale exercise in the rather forbidding style which some architects used between the wars to blend modernistic forms with traditional gothic details. It owes not a little to the work of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, whose church of St. Peter, Luton, is in a similar vein. Set on a prominent site, this church needs no tower to proclaim its presence; the sheer bulk of the building has a notable impact on the townscape even from a considerable distance.

The nave and chancel are roofed together under one long hipped roof set within a parapet, and form in effect one great rectangular box round which the subsidiary elements in the form of aisles, transepts and porches cluster. The walls are sheer, the east and west walls rising unbroken from the ground to the parapet and the north and south walls similar but with off-sets just below the parapet. The east wall is completely blind save for five lights for the crypt chapel at the foot and the foundation stone above them. There is no east window.

The west wall has a doorway under a pointed arch of receding orders of brickwork set under a projecting gable of the proportions of a pediment which is so often a feature of architecture at this date.  The buttresses at each side have the same profile as the north and south walls of the church, rising sheer until almost at the top, where there are two set-offsets.  There is a relatively small west window of two lights with a pair of mouchettes above an ogee head to each main light and a pointed quatrefoil between.

This is the standard design for windows in the upper part of the church and is used in the north and south walls of the nave and chancel (three pairs in the nave and two in the chancel). They are glazed with "crown" glass with feathery designs in the leading of the tracery.  The side walls of the nave have low passage aisles masking the lower parts, with severely rectilinear porches at the west end and at the east end against the transepts.  The oak doors have good bronze door-furniture of simple post-Arts-and-Crafts inspiration.  Above the aisles tall buttresses with three set-offs closely spaced near the top mark the bays.

The transepts fall short of the parapet and have pediment-proportioned gables north and south and rectangular windows of five lights in the lower part to light the transepts.  The upper part of the north transept, approached by a stair in a projection against the west face, forms the organ chamber and has no windows.  The inner part of the south transept, forming a room called the library, has a three-light window facing south, and the turret on the west side contains one bell in an arch rising above the parapet.

The chancel has two windows in the north and south walls like those in the nave and below these on the north a small chapel with blind rectangular windows (intended to be open) in the north wall and a circular window with a cross-transom in the east wall. Below this a doorway leads into a lobby for the crypt chapel. The vestry on the south side has windows of grouped rectangular lights and between this and the transept there is a staircase giving access to the crypt below and the library above. The eastern angles of the church have diagonal buttresses.

The interior of the church likewise is chiefly one large rectangular room with subsidiary spaces forming the aisles, porches, transepts (at two levels), north chapel and south vestry.  The floor is paved with woodblock in the nave and slopes from west to east.   The walls are plastered and whitened, and exposed stone dressings in cream coloured stones are limited to vertical bands marking the bays of the nave and the responds and voussoirs of the plain arches opening into the aisles and transepts.

These are uniform towards the aisles and slightly larger towards the lower parts of the transepts.  Arches of similar proportions open into the upper parts of the transepts. The arches at the lower level, to aisles and transepts, are provided with a hollow chamfer rising continuously from the floor to the apex.  The windows of the aisles are set within shallowly recessed arches and the aisle bays are marked by transverse arches. The nave is ceiled with a boarded canted ceiling with off-white panels divided by moulded ribs painted red and relieved with stencilled gold stars.

There is no structural division between nave and chancel, and the roof continues unbroken above both. The division is only marked by a change in rhythm in the side walls (in the chancel the windows are closer together and undivided by vertical stone strips) and by the raising of the floor by three shallow steps within a low stone screen on a polished grey-green marble plinth incorporating two ambos which form the pulpit and lectern. The floor is paved with polished grey travertine marble and there is one further step at the communion rails and a footpace of darker stone standing free of the west wall.

An arch on the north opening into the chapel is filled by an iron screen and a recent timber partition and the arch between the chapel and the lower part of the north transept is similarly treated. Because of the lack of windows (only the small east window, and that is filled with the only stained glass in the building) the chapel is very dark. The east window has a figure of Christ carved in relief on the mullion and transom. The arch on the south side frames the detached organ console. Beyond it lies the staircase giving access to the crypt and the upper room in the south transept, and this has typical detailing of the period with parallel iron bars and a chromium plated rail. The upper arches of each transept are provided with small galleries almost like theatre boxes. The bell is rung from a small room beside the south transept with a glazed lancet giving a view of the high altar.

The chapel in the crypt is of no architectural interest, but is enriched by a series of wallpaintings by Hans Feibusch which date from the early years of his time in this country. It has a woodblock floor and no furnishings of special interest.  The furnishings throughout the church, including such items as the altar ornaments, dossal, light fittings, pews and most of the woodwork is original, and as such of considerable interest as a virtually unaltered example of the style of the period.