Church of All Saints

Details

748/3/239 MUDEFORD 12-FEB-76 (North side) CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS

II DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: 1869, by J.L. Pearson. Hall behind, 1991, by Richard Scott.

MATERIALS: Red brick, stone dressings, banded tiled roofs.

PLAN: Nave with a small apsidal sanctuary.

EXTERIOR: A small church, seating only 120. Small nave with a single roofspan and bellcote on the east gable. The west window has simple lancet tracery in three lights, the side windows are single lancets or grouped lights beneath square heads. The apse has three uncusped single lancets. There is an attractive south porch of brick and timber with tiled roof; the openings in the timber frame have been glazed with Perspex. Parallel with the nave on its north side is the church hall (see Subsidiary Features) with a gable as big as the nave west gable but projecting further west.

INTERIOR: The walls are whitewashed and the floor carpeted (floor surfaces not inspected). The nave roof is of dark stained timbers, with collar-beam and braces forming a seven-section canted profile. Over the apse the roof is boarded and painted, with patterned ribs. There are two arched openings in the north wall, the easternmost probably the organ chamber, and that to its west connecting via a timber and glass partition with the hall and rooms of 1991.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Perp style octagonal font, 1885, with blind traceried panels on the bowl, and an arcaded stem. The pulpit is very simple, of panelled oak, 1950. There is a brass lectern, 1912, and altar rail of 1991. Plain bench pews, 1936. Stained glass: three east windows signed Heaton, Butler & Bayne; central light of 1918, flanks later. West window in memory of Mortimer Ricardo, d. 1876. Minor Late Victorian glass in the nave south, and a three-light window of 1962 (nave north). In the hall is a circular window commemorating a benefactor to the church, by Rita-Jean Peters, c. 1987.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Sunday school room c. 1960. Church hall by Richard Scott, 1991, contextual red brick. (Both excluded from the listing)

HISTORY: John Loughborough Pearson (1817-97) was one of the greatest 19th century church architects. He began practice in 1843 having trained in the offices of Ignatius Bonomi in Durham and Anthony Salvin and then Philip Hardwick in London. He was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1880. His churches could be exceptionally fine, and often display strong French influence. His most famous building is Truro Cathedral, begun in 1880. Mudeford in the 1860s was an isolated fishing community, c. 1 ½ miles from the town of Christchurch. All Saints was the gift of Mortimer Ricardo, the main landowner, who lived at Bure Homage House (now the Christchurch Harbour Hotel, opposite the church). Ricardo was a retired army Captain, and son of the economist David Ricardo. It was opened in June 13, 1869 and served as a chapel of ease to Christchurch, until dedicated to All Saints on September 27, 1931. This was a commission which can have offered Pearson no scope for spatial or other architectural expression.

SOURCES: Clayton, A., The History of All Saints Church, Mudeford (1999).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of All Saints, Mudeford is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* A small Gothic church of chapel-like character, by the noted architect J.L. Pearson, 1869.

* Given by Mortimer Ricardo, a wealthy landowner, and forming a group with the Late Georgian hotel opposite, formerly Ricardo's house

* The church is a historic and visual focal point in Mudeford.

* Good Late Victorian and early 20th century glass.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

101582

Legacy System:

LBS

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