Reasons for Designation
The Church of Holy Innocents at Tuck Hill is designated in Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The church is a good, Victorian Gothic design of 1868-9, by the prolific church architect James Piers St Aubyn, a cousin of the Reverend Charles Amphlett, the first incumbent and the prime force in the creation of the church
* It demonstrates good quality in architectural style and craftsmanship both internally and externally
* The building is almost entirely unaltered since its completion
* It has several good-quality windows by the renowned stained glass artist, Charles Eamer Kempe, and others by good makers
* It remains the dominant feature in the unspoilt, picturesque landscape setting which was designed to enhance its appearance
Details
ALVELEY
823/0/10114 TUCK HILL
26-FEB-09 The Church of Holy Innocents
II
An Anglican church in Victorian Gothic style, built in 1868-9 to a design by James Piers St Aubyn, with glass by C E Kempe, Lavers and Barraud, and A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Artists.
MATERIALS: The building is constructed from local sandstone quarried on site, with a plain clay tile roof with terracotta ridge detailing, a copper-clad bellcote and cast-iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: The church, based on a rectangular plan and oriented east-west, has nave with south aisle and south porch, and chancel with south vestry.
EXTERIOR: The building is a high single-storey, set on a moulded projecting plinth, with coped verges and a single stack at the east end of the south aisle. The building is of six bays, with a break between the nave and chancel. The south elevation has a porch at the west end, buttresses in two stages marking the window bays, and a gabled vestry bay at the east end. There are two-light traceried windows with trefoil heads set under drip moulds with stops to the south aisle; the vestry bay has three lancets with a continuous drip mould, and the chancel a single lancet with drip mould. The eastern return has a small lancet window and priest's door. The porch, which has angled buttresses, has outer gates of wrought iron of the early C21 set within a moulded doorway with a pointed arch; the pointed-arched door has elaborate hinges. The east end has a large, three-light window with cusped tracery and three trefoils above. The north elevation has single lancets to the chancel, and two- and three-light Geometric windows similar to those in the south side to the nave. The west end has a tripartite window to the south side, and to the north, a blind arch intended as the opening to a later tower, with a bellcote above. The bellcote is set partly on a square buttress at the west end, and rises from a square base, clad in copper and tile, above which is a timber frame with pointed arches, and a copper-clad spirelet based on an octagon.
INTERIOR: The interior has an exposed arch-braced, collar-beam roof with twin purlins and curved wind-braces constructed from pegged timber, springing from moulded corbels. The floors are of timber boarding beneath the pews, and polychrome tile to the nave, chancel and west end. The aisle arcade is formed from fat, circular piers with richly-carved Romanesque foliate capitals, from which spring moulded and chamfered, pointed arches. The interior is limewashed with exposed stone dressings. The timber reredos is deeply carved in relief, showing the Crucified Christ, with linenfold panelling to either side. There is a timber pulpit with Gothic arcading set to the north side of the nave, a carved angel lectern of 1944 to the south, and a stone font on Early English columns to the west end. Stained glass windows include: a depiction of Christ blessing children by Lavers and Barraud (1869) in the east end; three compositions showing respectively the Annunciation, St Mark, and a depiction of the presentation of the infant Jesus at the Temple by Charles Eamer Kempe (1892); and a Nativity in the north side of the nave by A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists (1939).
HISTORY: The small village of Six Ashes and Tuck Hill falls within parts of four separate parishes, but a significant distance from the churches of all of them. In 1866, a new Congregational Church was erected in part of Six Ashes; fearing that the proximity and relative convenience of this church would draw people away from the Church of England, the Reverend Charles Amphlett of nearby Four Ashes Hall set about raising funds for the building of a church at Tuck Hill. He succeeded, by a mixture of public subscription and grants from the Dioceses of Hereford and Lichfield. The site was donated by Mr Edward Wakeman of Coton Hall, an acre of the common land which then covered much of Tuck Hill. The church was designed by James Piers St Aubyn, FRIBA (1815-1895), a prolific London-based architect of churches, who was a cousin of Reverend Amphlett; the builder was Oliver Estcourt of Gloucester, who constructed the church in 1868-9 at a cost of £2179 7s 9d. The church was consecrated in 1869, and dedicated to Holy Innocents, in memory of Alice, the daughter of Reverend Amphlett, who had died in infancy of diphtheria. Alice is recalled in the east window, depicting Christ blessing children, which was designed by Lavers and Barraud, and was in place at the completion of the building. St Aubyn had intended the church as a completed design, but with provision for the later addition of a west tower. A fund was set up to raise finds for the tower and bells, but never reached the required level, so the church remained with the bellcote designed by St Aubyn in its place. Additions to the furnishings were made through the later C19 and the first part of the C20, with windows by C E Kempe added circa 1892, altar rails in 1911, the reredos by Arthur Lloyd Oswell in 1923, and a window by A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Artists in 1939. The lectern, in common with most of the church furnishing, was given by members of the Amphlett family, this piece in remembrance of Reverend George L'Estrange Amphlett who died in 1944.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
The Church of Holy Innocents at Tuck Hill is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* The church is a good, Victorian Gothic design of 1868-9, by the prolific church architect James Piers St Aubyn, a cousin of the Reverend Charles Amphlett, the first incumbent and the prime force in the creation of the church
* It demonstrates good quality in architectural style and craftsmanship both internally and externally, including a good arcade of Romanesque columns with rich foliate capitals
* It has several good-quality windows by the renowned stained glass artist, Charles Eamer Kempe, together with examples by Lavers and Barraud and A J Davies of the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Artists.
* The building is almost entirely unaltered since its completion
