Summary
Roman Catholic Church of St Benedict and attached school room (now parish hall), built in 1857 to designs by Charles Francis Hansom (1817-1888).
Reasons for Designation
The Roman Catholic Church of St Benedict, built in 1857 to designs by Charles Hansom, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the church and school room are examples of the work of Charles Hansom, a well-known British architect of the C19
* built in the Perpendicular style, the complex exhibits high quality craftmanship of the late Victorian period.
* the internal fittings showcase high quality craftmanship of the period and the importance of elaborate aesthetics associated with liturgical function.
Historic interest:
* the Church represents an interesting example of rural Catholic evangelism built to fulfil the mission of the adjacent Roman Catholic Downside Abbey in an area lacking an historical Catholic presence
* the Church is representative of the C19 re-establishment of the Catholic Faith in England following the 1850 establishment of Catholic dioceses and the part Downside played in this movement.
Group value:
* the Church and School Room have group value by their association and historic connection with the buildings of the Downside Abbey complex.
History
The Downside Estate was acquired in 1814 by a congregation of Benedictine monks compelled to leave their home in Douai, France, at the end of the C18. The monks initially settled in Acton Burnell, Shropshire, and from there, sought a base to establish a new monastery and school. Building began at Downside in the 1820s when the old manor house, Mount Pleasant, was adapted and extended with new school buildings erected in a number of phases throughout the C19 and C20. The monastic buildings and abbey church followed from the 1870s and into C20.
The School and Roman Catholic Church of St Benedict’s are located close to the Downside Monastic Estate and School. During the early C19 the English Benedictine congregations were responsible for missions across the country, but later in this period the Benedictine monks at Downside began to turn their focus back to a more monastic life centred on community and the local parishes around the abbey precinct. St Benedict’s was built to fulfil this local mission and serve the Catholics of the village of Stratton on Fosse. The buildings were first commissioned by Dom Charles Davis (later to become Bishop of Maitland) in the 1840s, but due to his departure construction had to wait until the Parish Priest Dom Aphonsus Morral started them in 1854 and 1857 respectively.
The whole complex was designed by Charles Francis Hansom (1817-1888), a well-known British architect of the C19 who worked in the Gothic Revival style. Church of St Benedict’s opened on Saturday 12 November 1857 and was consecrated on 3 October 1857 by the Right Reverend Joseph Rudderham, Bishop of Clifton.
The original design of the school consisted of two separate classrooms, side by side with a teacher’s house in between. One classroom and the teacher’s house were built as designed, while the Church of St Benedict’s took the place of the proposed additional classroom. Later alterations, presumed to have happened pre-1960s, adapted the school room to accommodate convent living accommodation above and the teachers house was reconfigured to support church uses. Records suggest that an extension was planned in 1878 but it is not known whether this was carried out. At some point the school was extended in a separate range to the west beyond the original playground (now car park). Today (2023) the first-floor accommodation is two independent flats, the parish flat and the convent flat.
The church as originally constructed consisted of a nave, porch and tower and was shorter than that seen today. The church was enlarged in 1913 when the porch became the Lady Chapel, the nave was extended, and a larger porch and stair turret were constructed to give internal access to the organ loft. It is not known when the rear entrance lobby and associated rooms to the north, between the two ranges, were constructed but fabric would suggest C20.
The font, located in the baptistry, was one previously used in the Old Chapel at Downside. It was brought to St Benedict’s when it opened in 1857.
In 1915 the earlier simple wooden rood screen, a screen that divided the chancel from the nave, was replaced with a more elaborate design by Dom Ephrem Sedden, a monk at Downside who trained as an architect.
In 1968 the architect Martin Fisher of Bath undertook a liturgical re-ordering of the church. This included the removal of the rood screen, the altar and step and the insertion of a new Doulting stone altar. The rood screen was partly reused as part of the extended organ loft.
Three windows in the church are dedicated to the Keleher family members; John Keleher was the sexton and grave digger for the church for many years in the C19.
Details
Roman Catholic Church of St Benedict and attached school room (now parish hall), built in 1857 to designs by Charles Francis Hansom (1817-1888).
MATERIALS: the church and school room are built of coursed rubble stone with ashlar window surrounds under slate roofs.
PLAN: the building comprises of two parallel ranges aligned east west connected by a collection of smaller rooms in a rough ‘H’ plan. The northern range is the Church of St Benedict and the southern range the school room, now parish hall. A lower range running north-south connects these two ranges and was originally the teacher’s house. The second storey of the parish hall and central range comprises of two flats, known as the Parish Flat and Convent Flat.
EXTERIOR: the building is in a Perpendicular style but has three distinct ranges. The parallel east-west ranges of the parish hall and church both have pitched roofs with cross finials at either end and gablet and pointed trefoil- cusped kneelers.
The northern range is slightly longer than the southern range and is the Church of St Benedict. It is of six bays with chancel and nave. To the north are four projections housing the lady chapel, the tower, the porch and an octagonal stair turret. The eastern end is supported by diagonal buttresses. The lady chapel has a decorative cross keys motif on its northern elevation. The tower is of two lifts with pyramidal lead roof topped with a cross weathervane. The porch has an off centre four-centred arched doorway. The windows are mostly tall rounded arched windows with cusped tracery in groups of two or three. Exceptions are the east window, which is a pointed-arched, three-light stained-glass window with geometric tracery and arched hood mould that culminates in head stops; the tower windows, which are central pointed-arch two-light windows with curvilinear tracery; and the octagonal stair turret windows which are arrow slits.
The school range (now parish hall) is a three-bay range running east-west. It has mostly pointed arch windows with two-light geometric tracery, although the three along the southern elevation have been altered to square openings externally and have modern uPVC windows inserted. Between the first and second bay are the remains of a chimney stack and C20 half dormers have been inserted at eaves level. The east end has two lancet windows with modern uPVC inserts.
The central connecting range, originally the teacher’s house, is made up of a collection of smaller pitched roofed infills. The front range runs north-south and includes an entranceway, sacristy and kitchen. It has an eight-light cross mullion window set in a recessed ashlar frame. A small pitched roofed porch projects forward of this range with cross finial and triangular kneelers that has been truncated to fit the space. It has a central pointed arch doorway with trefoil headed statue recess above. A small C20 range running east-west finishes the central block and houses the rear entrance lobby, with central four centred arch opening set in a rectangular recess with carved stone detail above. The roof of this range sits on small stone corbels and the roof is broken by a modern dormer window.
INTERIOR: the main range of the Church of St Benedict is laid out with chancel and nave and organ loft. The chancel at the east end has a raised timber dias with plain oak communion rails and a central reredos. The chancel arch, where the rood screen was removed, has been stopped off by the insertion of corbels in the design of musical cherubs, carved by the sculptor Gilbert Sumsion. The east end is decorated with a three-light east window and flanked on the south side by a piscina with trefoil cusping and on the north side a relinquary (St Vigor), also with trefoil cusping but fronted by a decorated iron grate.
The nave is laid with red and black tiles under a wagon roof with stopped corbels. Arched openings along the north wall access the Lady Chapel, baptistry (above which is the tower) and north porch. The Lady Chapel is in what was originally the north porch. It is oak panelled, and the window contains small fragments of medieval glass. The Baptistry is a small square space with vertical wooden panelling and font. The marks of the old stairs leading to the choir loft from inside the nave can be seen in the plaster on the right-hand wall facing the altar, opposite the belfry. The organ loft at the west end of the nave incorporates fabric from the 1915 rood screen. A spiral staircase provides access from the later northern porch. The porch is rectangular in shape with panelling and a small stone holy water stoup carved by Wilfrid Collins Snr in 1914.
Doors at either end of the south wall lead into the central range which consists of east porch, Sacristy, kitchen access to the upper floor flat and the rear C20 entrance lobby with confessions rooms. The main external door into the east porch is a pointed arch vertical boarded door with C19 strap hinges and lock mechanism. The porch is separated from the sacristy, which was originally the teacher’s living room, by a C19 timber and glass screen with central doorway. This space has been truncated by the insertion of vertical timber boarding into an existing four centred arch. The sacristy contains a simple stone corner fireplace with segmental arched opening and ovolo mouldings. The ceiling is of exposed joists and main beams resting on plain corbels and spans both the hallway and sacristy. Beyond, the kitchen and rear entrance lobby have no historic features of merit.
The southern range, originally the school room, remains one large space but a ceiling has been inserted to create an upper floor, and no historic fittings survive. Doors along its northern wall access the sacristy and kitchen. A door to the west enters a small lobby with WC’s and external doorway. The inserted ceiling cuts across the internal reveals of the gable end windows. The northern windows show arched reveals internally, in contrast to the rectangular openings externally.
The first floor of this range, created in the C20, has been much altered to accommodate two independent flats. External access has been created by altering a window to a door at first-floor level in the central courtyard with a modern metal staircase for access.
PRINCIPAL FITTINGS: the REREDOS is situated under the east window and made of sixteen statues in two rows of eight. These are set on pedestals and canopies and pinnacles rise above each statue to create the top of the screen. In the centre stands a figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary, added in 1968 in place of the original crucifix. The statues depict: Top Row - St Uritha, St Decuman, St Sativola, St Dunstan, St Alphege, St Keyna, St Joseph of Arimathea, Blessed Margaret Pole. Bottom Row – St Birgitta, St Congar, St Etheldreda, St Hugh of Lincoln, St Aldhelm, St Edith, St Ulricus, St Lucy. The statues flanking the reredos are St Vigor, Bishop of Bayeux and the right is the Blessed Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury. The reredos is flanked by statues in each corner of the Chancel, under small canopies. STAINED GLASS: the east window depicts the death of St Benedict, made of mainly Victorian glass by John Hardman and Co of Birmingham. The south wall of the nave is adorned a PIETA, a marble sculpture of Jesus and Mary at Mount Golgotha representing the "Sixth Sorrow" of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in a decorative framed recess. The FONT is an octagonal bowl set on a band of shafts. Each side has a relief carved motif and one side has the IHS motif. The PEWS are open backed fixed pine benches with simple plain ends with moulded top rails. Parts of the 1915 ROOD SCREEN has been re-used in the balcony of the extended organ loft. The belfry houses five BELLS cast by Llewellins and James of Bristol. All are dated 1891.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the complex is bounded to the east by a coursed rubble stone BOUNDARY WALL with triangular coping stones. To the west it is bounded by a cock- and- hen topped rubble stone wall which would have enclosed the school playground and now surrounds a carpark (2023).
The eastern access to the graveyard is covered by a LYCHGATE of timber construction with arched braces on a low rubble- stone wall. The roof is a tiled hipped roof with gablet and trefoil decoration.
