The west end was extended in the early 20th century.
Christ Church is an Anglican church in the town and seaside resort of St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Opened as the town's third Anglican church in 1860 to serve a rapidly developing residential area and to accommodate poor worshippers who could not afford pew rents at the fashionable St Leonard's and St Mary Magdalene's Churches, the original building was superseded by a much larger church built next to it between 1873 and 1875. Prolific ecclesiastical architect Sir Arthur Blomfield's simple Gothic Revival design forms a landmark on one of St Leonards-on-Sea's main roads, continues to serve a large area of the town (including the former parish of the now closed St Mary Magdalene's Church) and maintains a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition. It has been described as Blomfield's "finest achievement in Sussex" and "one of the main centres of Anglo-Catholic worship in Southern England".[1] The interior fittings are the best of any church in the borough, and the design has been called one of Blomfield's most successful.[2]St John the Evangelist's Church, founded as a daughter church nearby in 1865, also continues to thrive as a separate parish church. Historic England has listed Christ Church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
The seaside town of Hastings, founded in the 8th century, developed as an important trading hub, ecclesiastical centre and the chief Cinque Port by the Middle Ages.[3][4] There were seven churches by the end of the 13th century.[5] All but two vanished by the 18th century, but after a period of decline the town grew in importance again from that time and was a fashionable resort by the 1820s.[6] In that decade, builder and speculator James Burton bought land immediately to the west from the Eversfield baronets and founded a high-class new town, designed to his specifications.[7][8] St Leonards-on-Sea, which took its name from one of the ancient churches of Hastings,[7] grew rapidly in size and popularity, rivalling its older neighbour by the mid-19th century.[9]
The new community had two Anglican churches of its own by 1858: Burton himself founded St Leonard's parish church in 1831,[10] and St Mary Magdalene's Church was built in 1858.[11] Neither were suitable for the large numbers of poor and working-class people who had been attracted to the town to work in domestic service, shops and on the railway, or the labourers who built the town and lived there temporarily: the churches charged pew rents and were patronised by wealthy residents and visitors.[12] The nearest church with free sittings, the Church in the Wood, was several miles away in Hollington village.[12][13]
The original church, opened in 1860, stood to the south of the present building.English Heritage stated that the building, whose east end stands on the steep London Road, is a "large, complex town church" with an "impressive exterior".
Countess Waldegrave was a local benefactor who paid for many improvements to the religious and social life in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea in the 19th century. Holy Trinity Church was built in central Hastings at her expense in 1857–58.[15][16] Its site had been a wasteland which was home to hundreds of itinerant workers and poor people who lived in shacks;[17] they were displaced when the church was built, and many had to move to St Leonards-on-Sea, exacerbating the problem of a lack of accommodation for worship. Lady St John (Louisa Boughton), the widow of Sir John Vaughan and St Andrew St John, 14th Baron St John of Bletso and a friend of Countess Waldegrave, was concerned by the situation, and paid for a new church for central St Leonards-on-Sea which would be free of pew rents.[15][18] Built on the site of a former quarry and paid for entirely by Lady St John, Christ Church opened on 9September 1860 and was served by clergy from St Mary Magdalene's Church.[12] It was an Early EnglishGothic Revival-style sandstone building with a small bell-tower. Stone to build it was taken from the quarry.[18][19]
Lady St John's son, Rev. Charles Lyndhurst Vaughan, became the first permanent vicar of the church in 1863 after moving from St Neots in Cambridgeshire. Despite early opposition, particularly to his introduction of High church Anglo-Catholic ritual and ceremony to services, he became influential and well-respected in the church and town.[20][21] His early works included founding a daughter church in the newly developed Upper St Leonards in 1865—St John the Evangelist's Church[22] is still in use as a separate parish church—and opening church schools in 1873.[18][23] In the same year, he founded a new, much larger church next to the original building. The old Christ Church was frequently full, even though St John the Evangelist's Church had provided extra capacity in the north of the town, and Vaughan believed that a 1,000-capacity building would be needed.[23]Alexander Beresford Hopemppc laid the foundation stone of the new building, which was built on derelict land adjoining the north end of the old church, on 6 November 1873—the feast day of Saint Leonard.[23] Construction continued throughout 1874, when the Lady chapel, baptistery, nave walls and clerestory were erected, and in 1875 Vaughan decided to open the church for worship despite its incomplete state. A temporary roof was added, and work on the planned tower and spire was postponed.[24] The designer was Sir Arthur Blomfield, who usually worked in the Early English Gothic Revival style and designed many churches in Sussex and elsewhere.[25] A "distinguished" and prolific architect of the Victorian era,[23] his other churches included All Souls in Hastings, a rebuild of St John the Evangelist's Church in Upper St Leonards, and others in central Brighton and that town's Queen's Park area, Roffey, Bexhill, Hunston and Worthing.[25] In 1875, Christ Church's magazine described Blomfield's design as "the simplest form of early Gothic".[23] The builders were Dove & Co. of Isleworth.[23]
The new building was dedicated on 13 May 1875, its first day of public service. It could not be consecrated at that time, though, as debts from the building work were still outstanding. These debts, and the church itself, still therefore belonged to Fr Vaughan. All the required money was raised by October 1884,[26] and the Bishop of Chichester The Right Reverend Richard Durnford conducted the consecration ceremony on 20 November 1884.[27] Further structural additions were made during the rest of the 19th century: timber flooring and an alabaster altar were added in 1890 and 1891 respectively, and the long-awaited tower and spire were erected soon after a building fund was started in 1888.[28] Work began in 1894 and was completed in time for a dedication ceremony on 5 February 1895. Some of the bells and an iron cross which surmounted the spire was given as memorials by people associated with the church.[29] In the next decade, stained glass was installed in the clerestory windows, a new font was acquired and the church commemorated Fr Vaughan (who had died in 1895)[29] with a brass monument and a Calvary.[30] The church was extended at the west end with an organ chamber in 1919–20,[2] although the original plans were more ambitious: a war memorial chapel, a new (and much grander) entrance and a baptistery were intended.[28] Designs were drawn up by architect Temple Moore, but the cost was found to be too great and some money already raised was donated to a fund established to build a hospital in Hastings. A memorial chapel was built within the body of the church instead, and architect Leslie Thomas Moore (a partner of Temple Moore, but no relation)[31] designed a reredos, altar, marble memorial pillar and other decorative elements.[2][32] It was dedicated as the Chapel of the Holy Souls on 24 April 1921.[32] Further improvements, which opened out the interior, added a new marble floor and wooden choir stalls, and defined the sanctuary more clearly, were carried out in 1933. William Milner and Romilly Craze's work cost £850.[14][33]
The church was only slightly damaged during World War II despite frequent bombing raids on St Leonards-on-Sea, although services had to be held in the Lady chapel and later in the basement vestries.[34] Structural defects were found after the war, though, especially in the roof; this required emergency repairs, partly covered by an anonymous donation.[35] Most work was complete by 1951, although some of the windows were then found to be defective. During this time, many eminent visitors appeared at the church to encourage fundraising efforts and chair discussions and meetings: the well-connected rector of the time, Rev. Sir Percy Maryon-Wilson, 12th Baronet (who inherited his title in 1944)[36] invited friends such as Sir David Bowes-Lyon and John Betjeman.[37] Maryon-Wilson, the church's longest-serving rector,[38] died in 1964[37] and was commemorated by the creation of a memorial garden and the founding of a new church in the Kinondoni District of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Also named Christ Church, it was opened in 1968.[39]
St Mary Magdalene's Church, which had opened nearby in 1858, was declared redundant by the Diocese of Chichester in 1980 and was sold to the Greek Orthodox community.[11][40] Christ Church's parish was extended to absorb the former parish of that church, and the parish legal name was changed to Christ Church and St Mary Magdalen[sic].[41]
Architecture
Christ Church's landmark tower was completed and dedicated in 1895.
The original church of 1860 was a sandstone-built Early EnglishGothic Revival building, and Arthur Blomfield's new church was a much larger and more ambitious, although still simple, version of the same style.[14][19][23] Built mostly of rubble and sandstone with rock and stone dressings, its plan consists of a six-baynave with arcades and a clerestory, chancel, aisles to the north and south sides (the north aisle being apsidal), transepts, Lady chapel, vestries below the body of the church (due to the slope of the land), a memorial chapel, an organ chamber, two porches, a tower and a stone spire.[14][42] It is a very long and tall church, especially inside.[43] The "impressive" buttressed east end faces the main London Road and has a five-light lancet window and paired lancets below the gable. To the northeast, the partly ashlar-faced tower rises in four stages with an octagonal upper stage containing bells. There are also lancets, lucarnes and stone gargoyle carvings.[14][43] The peal of eight bells were installed in 1894 and were first sounded on 23 February 1895. The floor of the bell stage is of steel and Portland stone.[44] The tower is of Bath Stone with a Portland stone roof and rises to 119+3⁄4 feet (36.5m); the spire adds a further 64+1⁄2 feet (19.7m), and the 9+3⁄4-foot (3.0m) cross on top takes the total height to 189 feet (58m). The bells were cast by Gillett & Johnston.[44]
The two interior chapels are both decorated with frescoes. The Lady Chapel has a Madonna of the Magnificat, an Annunciation and images of various female saints surrounding Jesus and Mary. The designs are attributed to Bodley and Hare.[14][45] The Chapel of the Holy Souls (war memorial chapel) features Abraham meeting Melchizedek and three saints defeating the Angel of Darkness. There is also a sculpture of Saint Martin.[45] The sanctuary also has frescoes representing an array of saints. Some were again executed by Bodley and Hare in 1908 as copies of the originals, which dated from 1883 but suffered fading.[14][46]
The set of stained glass windows is extensive and "outstanding". Most was provided by the Burlison and Grylls and Heaton, Butler and Bayne firms.[14] The east window alone features images of cherubim, the Holy Women, Apostles, Martyrs, Magi, Archangels, Archbishops and Doctors of the early Church, Prophets, soldier-saints, seraphim, hermits, monks and friars, all presented at the Adoration of the Heavenly Court.[47]
The church today
The old and new Christ Churches (foreground and midground respectively) stand alongside their near-contemporary, the former St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church (background), closed in 2008.
The parish, which includes that of the former St Mary Magdalene's Church on St Margaret's Road, covers central St Leonards-on-Sea. Its boundaries are Gensing Road, Kenilworth Road, Pevensey Road, Clyde Road, London Road, Warrior Gardens, Edward Road, the railway line between St Leonards Warrior Square and Hastings railway stations, Falaise Road and the English Channel coast.[41]
Many services are offered weekly, all with a strong Anglo-Catholic character. There is a twice daily Mass, two Masses on a Sunday morning (the main Mass is preceded by the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament) and various prayer services. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, a rite principally associated with the Roman Catholic Church, is also offered.[51] The parish has asked for alternative episcopal oversight from a bishop of The Society (currently Martin Warner, Bishop of Chichester) on the grounds it rejects the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate.[52]
The original (1860) church building was converted into a parish hall, and was also used as a theological centre and for some of Christ Church School's activities.[18][53] It was refurbished in 2002.[54]
Christ Church continues to be one of the most recognisable landmarks in the town, and London Road "presents the visitor with a fascinating array of 19th-century church architecture".[55] The old and new churches stand together, and higher up the hill to the north the former St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church (closed 2008) looks down on them. Described as one of the finest[55] and most ambitious Nonconformist churches in Sussex,[56] the 1863 structure lost its distinctive spire in the Great Storm of 1987.[53][55][56]
1 2 Allen, John (4 February 2013). "Architects and Artists B". Sussex Parish Churches website. Sussex Parish Churches (www.sussexparishchurches.org). Archived from the original on 6 March 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
↑ Allen, John (28 March 2013). "Architects and Artists M". Sussex Parish Churches website. Sussex Parish Churches (www.sussexparishchurches.org). Archived from the original on 26 June 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
Sir Arthur William Blomfield was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied Architecture.
Christ Church is an Anglican church in the Ore area of the town and borough of Hastings, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. It is one of three Anglican churches with this dedication in the borough. The Decorated Gothic-style church, in the centre of a village which has been surrounded by suburban development, was built in 1858 to supplement Ore's parish church, St Helen's. The most distinctive structural feature, a corner bell turret, has been described as both "outstanding" and "very naughty" by architectural historians. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in the centre of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. It was built during the 1850s—a period when Hastings was growing rapidly as a seaside resort—by prolific and eccentric architect Samuel Sanders Teulon, who was "chief among the rogue architects of the mid-Victorian Gothic Revival". The Decorated/Early English-style church is distinguished by its opulently decorated interior and its layout on a difficult town-centre site, chosen after another location was found to be unsuitable. The church took eight years to build, and a planned tower was never added. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
Church in the Wood, officially known as St Leonard's Church and originally as St Rumbold's Church, is an Anglican church in the Hollington area of the town and borough of Hastings, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Although Hollington is now a large suburb, consisting mostly of postwar residential development, the church has stood in isolation in the middle of an ancient wood since it was founded in the 13th century—almost certainly as the successor to an 11th-century chapel. Restoration work in the Victorian era has given the Early English Gothic-style building its present appearance, but some medieval work remains. Legends and miraculous events have been associated with the church, and its secluded situation has been praised by writers including Charles Lamb. The church is a Grade II Listed building.
St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church is a former Congregational church in St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the town and borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Considered "one of the most ambitious Nonconformist buildings in Sussex", the sandstone building of 1863 forms a significant landmark on one of the Victorian resort's main roads—despite the loss of its copper spire in the Great Storm of 1987. Unlike most churches of its denomination, it did not join the United Reformed Church when that denomination was formed in 1972. It fell out of religious use in 2008 and had stood empty and was at risk of demolition. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance. Bought by a new owner in 2012 it was almost completely renovated, but was then sold again in 2019. The new owner plans to open the church to the public as an arts and antiques centre with a cafe in the tower.
St Luke's Church is a United Reformed church in the Silverhill suburb of Hastings, a town and borough in East Sussex, England. The congregation was originally independent before taking up Presbyterianism, and worshipped in a private house from its founding in 1853 until a permanent church was provided in 1857; this was one of the oldest Presbyterian places of worship in southeast England. The growth of the community has resulted in several extensions since then, and severe damage caused by the Great Storm of 1987 was quickly repaired—except for the loss of the building's distinctive spire. The church, along with most other Presbyterian congregations, joined the United Reformed Church when that denomination was formed in 1972. It is one of four United Reformed Churches in the borough of Hastings.
St Matthew's Church is an Anglican church in the Silverhill suburb of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. The present building, a large brick structure of 1884 by ecclesiastical architect John Loughborough Pearson, replaced a much smaller church founded in 1860 when Silverhill began to grow from an agricultural area with scattered cottages into a suburb of the increasingly fashionable seaside resort of Hastings. Although a planned tower was never built, the "imposing" church dominates its steeply sloping site; and although its architect—a leading Gothic Revivalist—considered it one of his lesser works, it has been described as "outstanding" and "architecturally inventive". English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
St Leonard's Baptist Church is the Baptist place of worship serving St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The elaborate building was designed by the architectural firm of Thomas Elworthy, responsible for many churches in late-Victorian era Sussex, and serves the residential hinterland of St Leonards-on-Sea—an area which grew rapidly after its early 19th-century founding by James Burton. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Mary Magdalene's Church is a Greek Orthodox place of worship in St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Dedicated to Mary Magdalene and built in 1852 for Anglican worshippers in the growing new town of St Leonards-on-Sea, a seaside resort which had been laid out from the 1820s, the church's prominent position on the skyline overlooking the town was enhanced in 1872 by the addition of a tower. No longer required by the Anglican community in the 1980s, it was quickly bought by the Greek Orthodox Church and converted into a place of worship in accordance with their requirements. The alterations were minimal, though, and the building retains many of its original fittings and its "archaeologically correct Gothic" exterior which reflected architectural norms of the early Victorian era. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs is the Roman Catholic church serving St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The present church, which combines a plain, unadorned Gothic Revival exterior with a lavishly decorated interior featuring extensive early 20th-century paintings by Nathaniel Westlake, is the third building used for Roman Catholic worship in the seaside resort. James Burton's new town of 1827, immediately west of Hastings, was home to a convent from 1848; public worship then transferred to a new church nearby in 1866. When this burnt down, prolific and "distinguished" architect Charles Alban Buckler designed a replacement. The church remains in use as the main place of worship in a parish which extends into nearby Hollington, and has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage for its architectural and historical importance.
St John the Evangelist's Church is the Anglican parish church of the Upper St Leonards area of St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The present building—a "very impressive and beautifully detailed" church in the Gothic Revival style, with a landmark tower—combines parts of Arthur Blomfield's 1881 church, wrecked during World War II, and Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel's 1950s rebuild. Two earlier churches on the site, the second possibly designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, were themselves destroyed earlier in the 19th century. The rich internal fittings include a complete scheme of stained glass by Goodhart-Rendel's favoured designer Joseph Ledger and a 16th-century painting by Ortolano Ferrarese. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
St Peter's Church is a former Anglican church in the Bohemia area of the town and seaside resort of St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Founded in 1883 in response to the rapid residential growth of this part of St Leonards-on-Sea, the "outstanding late Victorian church" was completed and opened in 1885. Architect James Brooks was towards the end of his career but still produced a successful, powerful Gothic Revival design, which was built by prolific local firm John Howell & Son—builders of several other churches in the area.
St Leonard's Church is an Anglican church in the St Leonards-on-Sea area of Hastings, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. The main church serving James Burton high-class mid 19th-century new town of St Leonards-on-Sea was designed by Burton himself just before his death, and it survived for more than a century despite being damaged by the cliff into which it was built; but one night during World War II, the sea-facing building was obliterated by a direct hit from a damaged V-1 "doodlebug" which had crossed the English Channel. The Gilbert Scott brothers' bold replacement church was ready in 1961, and along with a sister church at nearby Bulverhythe served the parish of St Leonards-on-Sea, covered by the Hastings Archdeaconry. Historic England has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
St Leodegar's Church is the Anglican parish church of Hunston, a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. The dedication—rare in England and unique in Sussex—has also been spelt St Ledger historically. A ruinous church dating from the 12th century was dismantled and rebuilt by prolific ecclesiastical architect Arthur Blomfield in 1885, but some old features were retained. The building, an Early English Gothic Revival structure of stone, was criticised by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner but was built on a "generous" budget and has some elaborate structural features such as a double belfry.
All Souls Church is a former Anglican church that served the Clive Vale suburb of Hastings, a seaside resort town and borough in the English county of East Sussex, between 1890 and 2007. The "large [and] serious town church" has been described as one of the best works by prolific ecclesiastical architect Arthur Blomfield. Built almost wholly of brick, inside and out, it dominates the streetscape of the late Victorian suburb and has a tall, "dramatic" interior displaying many of Blomfield's favourite architectural features. The church also has Heaton, Butler and Bayne stained glass and an elaborate reredos. Falling attendances and high maintenance costs caused it to close after a final service in November 2007, and the Diocese of Chichester officially declared it redundant soon afterwards. English Heritage has listed it at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance.
Crown House is a residential building on the seafront of St Leonards-on-Sea, a 19th-century planned seaside resort on the coast of East Sussex, England. It was the first building completed in the town, which was planned and laid out by architect and property developer James Burton, and he used it as his own house. Intended as "a high-class watering place by the sea, along the best lines [and] for the best people", St Leonards-on-Sea was overshadowed by its larger neighbour Hastings and was merged into that town before the end of the 19th century, but Burton's venture was initially successful—particularly after a Royal visit in 1834–35 when the Duchess of Kent and the future Queen Victoria stayed at Crown House throughout the winter.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
