Church of All Saints

Details

878/10/170

HARTSDOWN ROAD
Church of All Saints

22-FEB-73

GV
II
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: 1892-94 by Thomas Andrews of Margate. Base of tower by E.S Prior 1897; upper part by Caröe 1909.

MATERIALS: Rock-faced ragstone; ashlar base to the tower; limestone dressings. Red clay tile roofs.

PLAN: Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south west tower, north porch, north sacristy, south organ chamber, choir vestry in tower.

EXTERIOR: The original 1890s build is in a late 13th century Gothic style. The five bay nave is tall and is flanked by lean-to aisles. There is a clerestory with two-light windows with quatrefoiled circles in the heads. At the west end there is a large six-light window with elaborate Geometrical tracery. The aisles have pairs of lancets in each bay, the divisions of which are marked by buttresses. At the east end the east window is much smaller than that in the west end of the nave and has four lights with Geometrical tracery. All these parts of the church are conventional in their details which are archaeologically faithful to medieval precedents. On the north of the chancel is a weatherboarded vestry which was no doubt intended to be temporary. The tower, however, is a much freer composition, explained by the fact that it is from different campaigns and by two architects noted for their free adaptations of Gothic architecture, E.S Prior and W.D Caröe. The stages are not rigidly defined and on the west face the tower is elongated on the north to incorporate a doorway. Above this rises the tower stair which terminates at the base of the belfry. The lower part of the tower is battered and, from the battering, there rise slender buttresses near the corners and also in the centre of each face. The near-corner buttresses run out at the bottom of the belfry stage but the central ones continue to the parapet and mark a strong separation of the pairs of two-light belfry openings. Immediately below these are small, fretted openings and, in turn, below these a series of narrow rectangular slits. The tower terminates in a parapet with stepped battlements behind which is a pyramidal roof. The west doors to the tower are in a recess which has, above the doorway, an oval shaped with a lattice filled with bottle-end glass.

INTERIOR: The walls are plastered and whitened. The nave has arcades of moulded arches, circular piers and moulded capitals. The chancel arch is also moulded and has shafts with shaft rings to the outer order and a short semi-circular shaft resting on a foliage corbel to the inner order. The nave roof has tie-beams above which are arch-braces to a collar. The chancel roof is almost semi-circular. The alleys of the nave and aisles are floored with red and brown tiles arranged in a zig-zag pattern. In the chancel the tiling has more variety of colouring using red, black, cream and orange. The space inside the tower doorway has an inventive arrangement with interesting visual effects: the space divides with an arched stairway to the tower on the right and a short, arched passage to the church.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The font is of fairly unusual design with variegated marble panels set in the sides of the bowl which stands on short marble shafts with foliage capitals. In the chancel there are triple graduated sedilia. The organ is by Hill and Co of Plymouth. The rood was installed in 1941. Many windows have stained glass which has a date range of 1895 to 1923: the east and west windows are by Percy Bacon.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: First World War memorial crucifix to the north west of the church in the angles of Hartsdown and All Saints Roads. East of the church a rendered church hall.

HISTORY: The church was built on land given by the Hatfield family who lived at Hartsdown Park. The foundation stone was laid in 1892 and the consecration took place in 1897. The tower was begun in 1907 and completed in 1909.

The architects: Thomas Andrews also designed the church of Holy Trinity, Northdown, Margate, of 1893, but no other information is known about him. Edward Schroeder Prior (1852-1932), Harrow and Cambridge University educated, was articled to Norman Shaw in 1875-8 and remained with him until commencing independent practice in 1880. His architecture is notable for its inventive treatment of Gothic and innovations in terms of materials. He was a founder member of the Art Workers' Guild in 1883. In 1912 he was appointed Slade Professor of Architectural History at Cambridge University. He was a considerable scholar and published several books on medieval architecture. William Douglas Caröe (1857-1938) was a leading church architect at the end of the C19 and in the early C20. He was articled to Edmund Kirby of Liverpool in 1879-80 but transferred his articles in 1881 to the great Gothic revivalist, J.L Pearson, until 1883. He travelled extensively on the continent in 1877-82 before setting up in practice in London in 1883 after which he developed a prolific church-building and restoration practice and became architect to the deans and chapters of Southwell, Hereford, Brecon and Exeter. He was architect to the Charity Commission and to the Ecclesiastical Commission from 1895. Caröe is noted for his freely-treated and often eccentric treatment of the Gothic style. His grandest and finest church is St David's in Exeter.

SOURCES:
Visitor guide (on hand-held board) at church.
Roger Homan, The Victorian Churches of Kent, 1984, p 74.
John Newman, The Buildings of England: Kent, North East and East, 1983, p. 383.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The church of All Saints, Westbrook, is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is of special interest as a late Victorian Gothic Revival church built two-phases, the earlier of which contributed the body of the building in a late 13th-century style, while the latter is an inventive composition by one of the leading church architects of the early 20th-century.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

356547

Legacy System:

LBS

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