Church of St Peter

Summary

St Peter’s Church, Ravenshead, built in 1972 and designed by Colin Shewring (but not the attached link building and Centre).

Reasons for Designation

St Peter’s Church, Ravenshead built by Colin Shewring in 1972, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* An unusual surviving example of a timber hyperbolic paraboloid roof by timber engineer Hugh Tottenham. Tottenham was a major proponent of timber hyperbolic paraboloid roofs, and designed the first hyperbolic paraboloid roof to be constructed in England;

* A well preserved example of an innovative church design by architect Colin Shewring, incorporating unusual oval and hexagonal elements in plan, with differing functional areas of the church defined by shape, finish and colour throughout;

* As an intact example of a Modernist church, with unusual surviving architect designed fixtures and fittings;

* St Peter's is a good example of a church designed according to the principles of the Liturgical Movement, with a forward-placed altar, fan shaped seating and peripheral choir.

History

Prior to the Second World War, Ravenshead did not exist as a village, but as a disparate collection of three hamlets. Church services were held at nearby Blidworth and Linby with Papplewick. In the 1930s, communion was held once a month in a private house. In 1943, a decision was taken to build a church in the vicinity of the three hamlets, and a site was chosen at Larch Farm.

In 1946, a Ministry of Works sectional building was acquired and erected in 1947 by S P Stow, of Larch Farm, on the site of the current church hall. It was consecrated by Dr F R Barry, bishop of Southwell, on 29 June 1948. Proposals for a more permanent church on the site were approved in 1956. The three hamlets had grown and merged, and in 1966 the amalgamated settlement was given the name Ravenshead. Ravenshead became a parish in November 1971.

The current church, designed by Colin Shewring and utilising a roof by Hugh Tottenham, of Hume, Tottenham and Bennett, was commenced in February 1971 and dedicated on 22 April 1972, by the Right Reverend Denis Wakeling, Bishop of Southwell. A link building was added between the new church and the old (now the church hall) in 1976.

In the early C20 two related religious movements had a profound influence on church design across all denominations: Ecumenicism and the Liturgical Movement. The Liturgical Movement had its origins in progressive Catholic theological circles in pre-First World War Northern Europe. A return to Biblical sources and a deepening understanding of the worship of the Early Church promoted a new concept of liturgy, in which laity and clergy joined in active participation, with the Eucharist at the heart of a corporate act of worship. These ideas became widely disseminated in Europe during the inter-war period, and modernist architectural styles and new materials were employed in response to these new theological ideas. Church building in 1930s England generally remained conservative, although a number of architects experimented with a forward altar as a means of bringing the Eucharist closer to the congregation. Following the Second World War, bomb damage and suburban growth generated a great demand for new churches throughout Europe. These new churches experimented with form, employing variations of the Greek cross plan, T-plan, square plan, circular plan and octagonal plan, with circulation space around a centrally-placed altar. The limitations of a circular or octagonal plan led to considerable popularity of fan-shaped seating arrangements, as well as the design of striking hyperbolic paraboloid roofs.

A hyperbolic paraboloid is a doubly curved surface that can be cut to reveal both hyperbolas and parabolas. The design first appeared architecturally in Italy in 1934, on part of the Alfa Romeo factory in Milan. While hyperbolic paraboloid roofs were designed for a number of buildings (including one of the designs for Coventry Cathedral in 1951), they did not appear as structures in England until the late 1950s. Hugh Tottenham designed the first timber hyperbolic paraboloid roof in Britain; the weaving shed of the Royal Carpet Factory in Wilton (1957, now demolished), while working at the Timber Development Association. He left the Association in 1959, to form his own practice and to conduct research at Southampton University, and went on to design a number of other hyperbolic paraboloid roofs, including the Grade II* listed Church of St Aldate, Gloucester (with E W H Gifford) and the roof of the Church of the Holy Family, Blackbird Leys, Oxford.

Colin Shewring (1924 – 1994), from King’s Lynn, Norfolk, worked on a number of churches, both as restorations and new builds. His primary works are the Church of the Holy Family, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, St Luke’s Church, Leicester and extensions to the Grade II* listed St Martin of Tours, Bilborough. His restorations include parts of the Grade I listed St Margaret’s Church. He was also known for his artwork, contributing a window to the Grade I listed Red Mount Chapel in King’s Lynn and the altar furniture of the Grade I listed Church of St Andrew, Plymouth.

A number of minor alterations have been made to the church since its opening. The lounge gallery was glazed to separate lobby and lounge and the windows replaced with uPVC in 1998. The aluminium pulpit has been replaced by a timber one. In addition, a bishop’s chair and credence table have been added in timber. All of the timber alterations and additions were made by a local carpenter. The organ console was replaced in 2008, and the piano in the lounge has been replaced, and the church hall demolished (2012) and replaced with a modern structure.

Details

Anglican church, by Colin Shewring. Erected in 1972.

MATERIALS: Brick, with timber roof.

DESCRIPTION:

EXTERIOR: The exterior of the church is dominated by the hyperbolic paraboloid roof of the worship space, which is suspended from a concrete ring beam on top of a buff brick curtain wall. The roof is coated with a rubber based material with a metallic reflective coating and drains to a spout at its lowest point. The spout discharges into a freestanding brick tower. The south elevation contains a small cantilevered tangential protrusion, which holds a dalle de verre window. In front of the curtain wall, a single story entrance block in dark brick, with dark stained mortar, contains the front door and a connecting wing to the church hall. The doors are vertical part glazed doors, with oversized sculpted furniture. The doors have a large decorative concrete lintel over. The entrance block has a number of rooflights to the north of the worship space (over the internal rooms). Windows are uPVC replacements, both in the entrance block and the main windows of the worship space.

The attached link building (1978) and The Centre (completed 2012) are utilitarian in design and although they do not detract from the special interest of the church are not included in the listing.

INTERIOR: Inside the building, the distinction between the buff bricks of the worship space and the dark bricks of the ancillary spaces is maintained. The main worship space comprises a large oval room, with white roughcast walls and a matchboarded roof. The sanctuary is set forward from the south wall, putting the altar at the focal point of two rows of pews angled towards the altar and set on an incline to allow better visibility for the rear rows. The altar, cross, candle sticks and wardens’ staves are original designs by Shewring for the church, as is the aluminium hymn number display and wooden president’s chair. The choir is set behind a low sinusoidal retaining wall of blue brick, beneath the organ pipes. While the organ console was replaced in 2008, the organ pipes are original. To the east of the sanctuary, a low blue brick wall surrounds the font. The font is made of Jersey granite, and sits on a concrete plinth. The blue brick wall holds a number of wooden benches, and the floor around the font is of cobbles set in cement, surrounded by blue pavoirs. Behind the sanctuary is the dalle de verre window, with a small aumbrey in front. The window is set on an angle, so is not visible from the pews. The north wall contains both doors, two ranges of windows set high in the curtain wall, and a smoked glass window into the lobby.

Outside the main worship space is the lobby, which affords access to other rooms in the church. It is polygonal, with its shape determined by the other rooms in the building, and contains a book trolley and hymn book stand by Colin Shewring. In addition to the smoked glass window, there is a small squint and adjacent lighting panel, allowing the lights in the worship space to be controlled from the lobby. To the east is the lounge. This is separated from the lobby by a glass screen, inserted on top of a low gallery. The room has a large window on the east wall, and a large metal sculpture entitled the Cross of Thorns, by Gerry Blood on the north wall.

The north side of the lobby is taken up by five rooms, formed by five hexagons, from west to east, the sacristy, office, choir office, kitchen and toilets. The sacristy, office and choir office have matchboarded internal walls and rendered internal walls. The sacristy has a built in sacristy credens. The kitchen and toilets contain modern fittings.

Sources

Books and journals
Booth, L G, The Design and Construction of Timber Hyperbolic Paraboloid Shell Roofs in Britain 1957 – 1975 in Construction History, Vol. 13, (1997), 67 - 90
Harwood, E, Liturgy and Architecture: The Development of the Centralised Eucharistic Space in Twentieth Century Architecture, Vol. 3, (1998), 49 - 74
Harwood, E, Foster, A, Places of Christian Worship 1914 – 1990: A Selection in Twentieth Century Architecture, Vol. 3, (1998), 103 - 127
Cartwright, D E, Tides. A Scientific History, (1999), 21
Beverley, H, Jallands, E, The First Fifty Years. A Brief History of St Peter’s Church, Ravenshead, (1997)

Websites
Information on Colin Shewring from the 20th Century Society Churches Database, accessed 15 August 2017 from https://c20society.org.uk/churches/?church-name=&architect=Shewring&location=&denomination=all&listinggrade=all&date=all&orderby=date
Details of the Red Mount Chapel window, accessed 15 August 2017 from http://bystargooseandhanglands.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/red-mount-chapel.html
HIstory of St Peter's Church, Ravenshead, accessed 15 August 2017 from http://southwellchurches.history.nottingham.ac.uk/ravenshead/hintro.php

Other
St Martin of Tours, Bilborough. Unpublished church guide leaflet

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry