Summary
A church of 1879 by John George Bland (1820-1898), greatly extended in 1896 by Benjamin Corser (1840-1918), with a hall added in 1971.
Reasons for Designation
Architectural interest:
* the building is a well-designed Gothic church by known architects, and its two phases have resulted in a building which is attractive in the variety of its massing and asymmetric articulation;
* the church is richly furnished with stained glass and fixtures and fittings supplied by firms that are amongst the best regarded ecclesiastical architectural outfitters of the late C19 and early C20, indicating a dedicated and wealthy congregation;
Historic interest:
* it illustrates the need for a new place of worship to meet the spiritual requirements of a community formed through growing industrialisation and urbanisation in the late C19.
History
Following the coming of the railway to Olton in 1869, the small rural settlement grew rapidly and it expanded into an affluent Birmingham suburb. Many of Olton’s new inhabitants worshipped at St Mary’s church in Acocks Green. Arthur Butler, a curate at St Mary’s saw the need for Olton to have its own church, and was instrumental in the establishment of St Margaret’s. Butler became the first vicar of St Margaret’s, a position that he held from 1880 until 1922. The original vicarage and land for the church were supplied by the Birmingham shoemaker and local property developer James Kent (d. 1903) and a Mr J W Williams.
St Margaret’s was by design built in two stages with expansion in mind. The first phase was constructed in 1879 to designs by John George Bland (1820-1898) of Bland and Cossins, the builders were Bromwich and Foster of Rugby. This first church consisted of an aisled chancel and vestry and could seat around 200 of the 800 people resident in Olton in 1880. The glazing was by Mr S Bourne of Birmingham and hot water central heating system by Messers Hassell and Singleton of Birmingham. The church cost about £2300, with many of the furnishings given as gifts from individuals. It was consecrated by the Bishop of Worcester on the 14th of December 1880.
In 1895-6 the church was extended with a new nave and transepts by the architect Benjamin Corser (1840-1918), in this scheme the old church was incorporated as the chancel of the new. Corser worshipped at St Margaret’s and he designed many of the fixtures and fittings added throughout the end of the C19 and early C20. Bridgemans of Lichfield, ecclesiastical sculptors, carried out a lot of the carved work, including the alabaster pulpit and chancel screen. The pulpit features a central figure of St Margaret, and the dragon from the story of her martyrdom can be found as a motif in decorations around the church. The new parts of the building were consecrated by the Bishop of Worcester on 19 February 1898, when the pews for the aisles had arrived. The large hall to the south (not included in this List entry) was added in 1971.
Details
A church of 1879 by John George Bland (1820-1898), greatly extended in 1896 by Benjamin Corser (1840-1918).
MATERIALS: walls are sandstone blocks brought to course; in ashlar to the older nave and northern transepts, rock-faced to the rest. Windows, dressings, details and copings are in Bath stone. The roof covering is clay tile.
PLAN: the church is cruciform in plan, orientated south-east / north-west, though for clarity in this assessment it will be referred to as east / west (with the chancel as customary at the east end). The largest element is the nave at the west end of the church, which is rectangular with its shorter ends to east and west. Adjoining to the east of the nave is the chancel, also rectangular, though shorter and narrower than the nave. Both nave and chancel have their own north and south transepts, those of the nave wider than those of the chancel. The south nave transept has a single storey element to its south with a bellcote over it. The southern chancel transept is narrower than its northern counterpart, which allows a small porch to the east then continuation of the chancel roof in a catslide east of the porch. West of the transepts are north and south aisles running the length of the nave.
EXTERIOR: roofs over the nave, chancel, porches and transepts are pitched with the aisle roofs mono-pitched to the nave walls. The south slope of the chancel roof is extended in a catslide covering the vestry, with this catslide in turn partially covered by the pitched roof to the south porch. The nave, chancel and transept roofs have slightly raised parapets to their gables under coping stones. A stone chimney stack for the vestry rises through the south slope of the roof of the chancel. All gable ends have Bath stone kneelers, and the gables of nave and transepts (except for the narrower, south chancel transept) have platbands. The nave transept gables have cinquefoil niches between the platbands, while there is a double lancet niche in the north chancel transept gable. There are pinnacles at the apices of all the gables: the nave and chancel have Celtic crosses, the nave transepts have fleur-de-lys, and the chancel transepts Latin crosses.
The church is in the Geometrical, or Decorated, Gothic style. Windows have bar tracery except for in the north chancel transept which has plate tracery. Doors, windows to the chancel, transepts and the west nave window have hood moulds which spring from corbels, some of which are detailed carved heads, others have been left as blank cubes. The church has angled buttresses to its corners, these have one or two steps depending on their height, and have stone coping. There is a continuous stone plinth course around the lower part of the building, varying with site topography, but typically four to six stone courses above ground level. The nave and chancel both have drip moulds at cill level of their windows, though these do not continue to the aisles or chancel transepts.
The north elevation of the church’s east end is the north wall of the chancel, which has a pair of two-lancet Geometrical windows separated by a buttress. West is the gable end of the chancel transept which has a two-lancet Geometrical window, but in plate rather than the bar tracery used on other windows. Angle buttresses mark the join with the larger nave transept which adjoins to the west. The nave transept has two, two-lancet Geometrical windows. West of the nave transept is the wall to the aisle which has three triple-lancet windows separated by buttresses, then a double doorway, over which the aisle roof raises to a pitched dormer leaving a triangular gable above the door. There are four small hexafoil windows in a stone surround in the clerestory of the nave above the aisle.
The east elevation of the chancel is dominated by the large Geometrical window of four lancets beneath two trefoils then a large hexafoil. South of this is the double lancet window to the chancel’s south transept under its catslide roof section, with the small porch to the vestry under its pitched roof and hood-moulded arched doorway south of that. Behind the porch roof the east facing roof slopes of the chancel and nave transepts are visible. To the north is the east wall of the chancel’s north transept with its two-lancet window, and beyond this is the roof slope of the higher nave transept.
When viewed from the south, the west end of the church is largely obscured by the 1970s extension. A small, external store under a flat roof is built against the eastern part of the 1970s block. This 1970s work cuts into the single-storey mono-pitch roofed choir vestry at the south end of the nave’s south transept. The south elevation of the single-storey choir vestry has a double-lancet window, and its east end supports a bellcote which joins at right angles to the south-transept of the nave above. The nave’s south transept itself has a pair of two-lancet windows above the mono-pitch roof. The south transept of the chancel, lit by a three-lancet window, adjoins the nave transept to the east. East of the chancel transept is the south wall of the small south porch (internally now part of the vestry), which has two small windows under a pitched roof and is at right angles to the roof of the chancel transept. Easternmost is the south wall of the chancel which has a two-lancet Geometrical window.
The west elevation has a central doorway to the nave under a shallow porch which has a pitched roof. A large Geometrical window is over the porch, it has four lancets below two trefoils and a hexafoil. The east ends of the aisles each have a double lancet window and are separated from the nave by two-stepped buttresses. The 1970s hall (not included in this List entry) extends to the south.
INTERIOR: the shallow porch at the west end of the nave has English garden wall bond brick internal walls, a medieval-style encaustic tile floor and timber-boarded ceiling. From the porch, double doors in a chamfered stone surround lead into the nave where the other side of the door surround has a hood mould springing from two carved corbels. The nave has aisles to north and south, with the east ends of the aisles divided by arches from the nave’s transepts. There are three marble steps up from the crossing into the chancel under a large arch, and the altar is set over a marble block.
The chancel has its own transepts, adjoining and east of the nave’s transepts. Each of the nave transepts is used as a side chapel, while the north chancel transept contains the organ. The southern side chapel uses both nave and chancel transepts, but the south transepts are deeper than those to the north, with the choir vestry and the vestry being reached through separate doors in the southern walls of the south transepts. The choir vestry allows access through to the 1970s extension in the west. The walls of the aisles are in twelve courses of brick in English garden wall bond, capped by a rail, above which the walls are rendered. Other walls are rendered.
The floors of the naves and aisle are covered by square-set red quarry tiles with the pews on pine boards. The chancel has a mosaic floor to the part nearest the crossing, then encaustic tiles in the sanctuary, with the rest including the steps to the altar carpeted. The north chancel transept is carpeted, the south transept has diagonally set black and red quarry tiles.
The roof timbers in the nave are exposed showing trusses alternating between a simpler truss with tie beam and collar, and a more elaborate one augmented by arch braces. The simpler trusses spring from the sole plate over the clerestory, the braced trusses are supported by posts on carved stone corbels on the upper aisle walls. The chancel roof has braced trusses with steel ties.
Generally, the church is enhanced with rich carvings, particularly in the variety of flowers and vegetation shown in the capitals of the columns supporting the double-chamfered arches of the aisle arcade and partitioning the chancel from its south transept. This well-executed figurative detailing is also seen in the corbels supporting the chancel arch, and on a smaller scale, on the corbels that spring other arches and hood moulds, and those for the posts supporting the more elaborate nave roof trusses.
FIXTURES AND FITTINGS, STAINED GLASS AND MEMORIALS: over the door to the west porch at the back of the nave is an elaborate alabaster surround commemorating those of the parish who lost their lives in the First World War. The west window above is also commemorative of the war and is by Hardman and Company, dating to 1920. In the north transept of the nave, in its north wall the stained glass is also by Hardman’s and dates to 1924, where it is accompanied by a tablet on the wall below dedicating itself and the window to Arthur Butler, the first vicar of St Margaret’s, who served over 40 years in that position. The north chancel transept houses the organ of 1900, made by Norman and Beard of Norwich.
There is a brass plaque to the landowner James Kent (d. 1903) on the south pier of the crossing, stating that the mosaic floor, choir stalls and reading desk were donated by a William Ward. Many of the furnishings are by Benjamin Corser, including the alabaster pulpit depicting St Margaret with the dragon at her feet at the north pier of the crossing, and the low, solid carved alabaster screen either side of the steps up from nave to chancel (both 1898 and carved by Bridgeman's of Lichfield). In the chancel, Corser also designed the alabaster front screen to the choir stalls and timber altar rail (both 1904) and the oak lectern (1913). Behind the altar is an alabaster reredos by Corser (1901) with three central ogee-headed niches which house a carved Latin cross flanked by kneeling figures, with ogee arched panels to either side running the width of the chancel. There is a brass plaque in a niche within the alabaster reredos saying that it and the adjoining sedilia are to commemorate a Joan Barker. The south and east chancel windows are by Ward and Hughes of 1895. The north chancel window is from 1886 and by Thomas William Camm (1839-1912). The east window of the southern side chapel is by Hardman’s from 1959. The north aisle windows are by Clayton and Bell from 1911. The font at the west end of the south aisle is alabaster by Corser, carved by Bridgman’s and dates to 1913. Its oak cover is from 1920.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 29 November 2024 to amend the name, address and description.
