All Saints' Church is the Anglican parish church of the town of

Fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada *Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach, ...

in the county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is notable for its architect,

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

and was constructed 1861–2.

History and description

The church was designed by Burges and was built between 1861 and 1862.''Hampshire and the Isle of Wight''; p. 234 It was extended to the west in 1934 by A. J. Steadman and a Lady Chapel was added in 1958 by John Purser. The church was commissioned by the local squire, Charles Edward Lefroy, secretary to the Speaker of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

as a memorial to his wife, Janet Lefroy. It cost £3,323. It has been listed Grade II* on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

since June 1987.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, dan ...

says of Fleet that "it has no shape, nor character nor notable buildings, except one", that one being All Saints. The church is of red brick and its plan is "simple in the extreme."''William Burges and the High Victorian Dream''; p. 194 The interior too is simply decorated but the massive sculpture, particularly of the Lefroys' tomb and of the gabled arch below which it originally sat is quintessentially Burges, "not so much muscular (gothic) as muscle-bound".''William Burges and the High Victorian Dream''; p. 195 Janet Lefroy was originally a Walker, daughter of James Walker, who established the great marine engineering company of Walker and Burges with

Alfred Burges Alfred Burges (1796–1886) was a British civil engineer. He was apprenticed to the civil engineer James Walker, and in turn trained several other engineers including Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Walker and Burges were responsible for railways, bri ...

, father of William. This family connection led to Burges obtaining the commission. The interior was significantly altered in the later twentieth century by the removal of the Lefroy tomb from its original position and by the whitewashing of the apse. Of these alterations, Pevsner comments; "And so a work by a none too prolific genius is irreparably spoiled."

Fire

Far greater damage was caused in 2015 by an arson attack. On 22 June the roof and much of the interior was destroyed by a major fire. Daniel Finnerty, a seventeen-year-old local, was subsequently arrested for suspected arson. In November 2015, at Winchester Crown Court, Finnerty pleaded guilty to two charges of arson and was sentenced to four years in a Youth Offender Institution (reduced to years on appeal) and to a three-year extended licence.

Notes

References

*Pevsner, Nicholas and Lloyd, David, ''Hampshire and the Isle of Wight'', The Buildings of England, Penguin (1967) *Mordaunt Crook, J, ''William Burges and the High Victorian Dream'', James Murray (1981) * *

External links

* {{William Burges 1862 establishments in England Churches completed in 1862 Fleet, All Saints Gothic Revival architecture in Hampshire Gothic Revival church buildings in England Fleet, Hart

Religious buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson William Burges church buildings 2015 fires in the United Kingdom