Church Heritage Record 637247

4-bay nave, 3-bay south aisle, south-west vestry, 2-bay chancel, choir vestry, clergy vestry, Lady Chapel, and north organ chamber.

Nave approx 30m (100ft) x 9m (30ft).

Built in stages, and never completed as originally planned. The present church building replaced an iron Mission Church erected on the site in 1867. The chancel of the present church was built by J W Walters in 1875, attached to the old iron church (functioning as a nave). Work to complete the nave around the old iron church was basically finished by 1889 to designs by W Butterfield. W D Caroe supervised works after Butterfield’s death, although it is unclear what might be attributed to him.  The planned aisles and tower were not added because of cost. The church was hit by a V1 bomb in 1944, the windows blown out and some structural and roof damage caused. The south aisle and south-west transept/tower were added following a refurbishment by T F Ford in 1955-6. 

The church stands on a brick plinth, and is quite tall in relation to its footprint.  It is designed in the Early English and Decorated style, followed by all three architects, though the join between their work is very obvious; the bright red tiles of the chancel and flanking roofs contrasts with the dark roofs of the nave and aisle, accentuating this. Ford’s work is self-effacing to the point of anonymity.

The west wall has a 5-light window with Geometrical tracery in the nave, and a small bell under a wooden gablet mounted high on the wall.  The north side of the nave is blind at ground level as an aisle was intended, and brick toothings were left in the aisle walls, still visible. The nave arcades are covered externally with tiles.  The south aisle has paired lancets in each bay with plain buttresses of one weathering between. The western bay is taken up by a two-storey gabled transept/tower, the apex of which reaches to just below the nave eaves. The south wall of this is pierced by three small pointed lights at ground floor level and two tall lancets above. The nave clearstorey has cusped round windows to each bay.  The church has a shallow porches with a plain pointed entrance at the west end of the north wall, and entrances under gables to the clergy vestry and to the transept/tower.

The chancel has a clearstorey above the Lady Chapel and vestries with lancet windows, between flying buttresses with gablets on the south side.  The Lady Chapel has 2-lights in the south wall and a 3-light plate tracery window in the east, all with quatrefoils in the head.  There is one east lancet in the north wall, the rest is taken up by the vestry, sacristy and organ chamber with three separate mono-pitched roofs, an awkward composition.  The east wall of the chancel has three stepped lancets under a round window with a quatrefoil within, the façade framed by angle buttresses with stepped stone weatherings.  The foundation stone of 1875 is set beneath.

The interior retains its Victorian layout in the nave and chancel, mostly whitewashed but with a full scheme of painted and stencilled decoration in the chancel, these perhaps replacements for the originals. Although the aisles were not built in 1889 the arcades were finished in anticipation, with pointed arches carried on short columns with plain moulded caps and bases. The north aisle arcade has a blind and featureless wall just behind. The nave is fully pewed, the font is central at the west end. The south-west corner is taken up by an altar with a large carved Crucifixion in an architectural case with wooden rails by Comper, a War Memorial. Adjacent to this is a doorway leading to the lower room of the transept/tower, a vestry. There are also various other statues and High church paraphernalia. Looking up, there is a band of coloured tiles under the clearstorey, and an attractive painted vaulted ceiling, the ribs taken down the walls as engaged colonettes with annulets.

Looking west, a plain arch (by Ford) leads through a solid wall between the aisle and Lady Chapel. By contrast, the chancel arch is tall and pointed, of two orders with stiff-leaf capitals to the tall slender engaged columns carrying the arch; above the arch are painted angels.   A filigree carved oak 7-bay rood screen with a central gable and wrought iron gates within the central bay provide a fitting introduction to the highly decorated chancel, which has a vaulted roof, the ribs picked out in white against a blue background. The floor is of encaustic tiles, and there are very good choir stalls.

The side walls of the chapel are of two bays of tall pointed arches with 3-light cusped openings at clearstorey level, the outer two lights of which are blind; below these is a painted balcony to a miniature triforium, all under tall pointed arches framed by detached rere-shafts with annulets.  The north wall of the chancel contains the organ in the west bay, with tall case and exposed pipes, the eastern bay has two pointed doorways leading to the vestry and sacristy. All around the doors and around the east wall is a two-tier scheme with stencilled and painted decoration and texts below a turquoise background with flying angels. A large carved stone reredos takes up the space under the east window, brightly painted and gilded. The east window has rere-shafts as with the arches described above. A fine High Gothic Revival ensemble.

There is a stone piscina in the sanctuary north wall and a wooden triple sedilia on the south side, with a glazed timber screen (1950s) behind delineating the Lady chapel.  This is brightly decorated with a text along the cornice and etched glass with the names of deceased parishioners.  The chapel itself also has an encaustic tiled floor and a smaller oak reredos.