All Saints Hove is an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church in
Hove
Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...
, part of the English city of
Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...
. It has served as the
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
for the whole of Hove since 1892, and stands in a prominent location at a major crossroads in central Hove.
History
The present parishes of Hove and
Preston had been united as a single
benefice
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
, ''Hove-cum-Preston'', since 1531.
St Andrew's Church, of Saxon origin but rebuilt from a near-derelict state in 1836 in response to the area's growing population,
had served as Hove-cum-Preston's parish church. When the parish was separated into two new areas serving Hove and Preston respectively in 1879,
St Andrew's status was changed to that of parish church of Hove. However, when Revd Thomas Peacey was appointed the first vicar of Hove in the same year, he immediately showed his intention of replacing it with a new, more impressive church by selecting the prominent ecclesiastical architect
John Loughborough Pearson
John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...
to submit a design.
Construction did not begin until 1889, with the first stone being laid on 25 April 1889;
during the 1880s, Pearson had been working on various projects, including the vicarage (on the same plot of land) and the nearby
St Barnabas Church. The church was built, opened and consecrated in stages: the
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and side aisles, forming the core of the present building and costing £14,000, were opened in 1891 after a consecration ceremony by the
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat ...
(
Richard Durnford
Richard Durnford (3 November 1802 – 14 October 1895) was the Bishop of Chichester from 1870 to 1895.
He was born in Newbury, Berkshire, into an ecclesiastical family (his father was also named Richard Dunford). He was educated at Eton and M ...
, who personally gave £1,000 towards the cost of the church) on 1 May 1891; the eastern end was not finished until 1901, four years after Pearson's death—its completion was overseen by his son, and the new Bishop of Chichester,
Ernest Roland Wilberforce
Ernest Roland Wilberforce (22 January 1840 – 9 September 1907) was an Anglican clergyman and bishop. From 1882 to 1896 he was the first Anglican Bishop of Newcastle upon the diocese's creation, and from 1896 to 1907 he was Bishop of Chichest ...
consecrated it on 1 November 1901; and an incomplete tower on the southwestern side, and an adjacent
narthex
The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...
, were provided in 1924. The tower has never been finished, although its interior does feature a statue of Revd Peacey holding a model of the church.
By this time, £40,000 had been spent on construction.
All Saints became the parish church of Hove in 1892, replacing St Andrew's.
It also serves the smaller Parish of Hove All Saints, which includes the former church of St Thomas the Apostle; this was declared redundant in 1993
and is now the
Coptic Orthodox
The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي ...
church of
St Mary and St Abraam.
The area covered b
the parish of Hove All Saintscovers most of eastern Hove to the border with Brighton, stretches from the seafront to the A270 Old Shoreham Road and is one of the most populous parishes in the Chichester diocese.
Architecture
All Saints is an imposing church—one of the largest of the 19th-century Gothic revival—and bears some resemblance to one of John Loughborough Pearson's largest ecclesiastical projects,
Truro Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...
.
Pearson used local
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
for the exterior, in contrast to the
knapped flintwork and red brick decoration of his other Hove church, St Barnabas;
and the predominant architectural style, the Early English Decorated style, is also markedly different from his other major churches, mostly in the London area. The interior is also of stone, usually only seen in the grandest of mediaeval buildings, and the great roof is constructed of Sussex oak. The narthex at the western end leads through to a very wide nave with aisles and tall arcades on both sides (likened by Pevsner to those of Exeter Cathedral) and a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
with
side chapels.
One of these is separated from the body of the church by a canopied screen of great richness carved in wood, dedicated to people from the parish killed in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
The church is dominated by a stone
reredos
A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images.
The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...
carved by
Nathaniel Hitch
Nathaniel Hitch (1845–1938) was a British sculptor. As a young man, he became an apprentice sculptor journeyman and after studying at the Borough Polytechnic and experience working alongside architectural sculptors, he developed a career ...
and installed in 1908. Pearson used a clever conceit in the design of the church to produce a visual concentration on the reredos, and the east end of the church was described by the architect
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887 in Cambridge – 21 June 1959 in Westminster, London) was a British architect, writer and musician.
Life
Harry Stuart Goodhart was born on 29 May 1887 in Cambridge, England. He added the additional name Rende ...
"as nearly perfect as can be".
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...
described the building as "superb and cathedral-like". Other internal fixtures include oak choir stalls and canopies designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson in memory of Thomas Peacey, a stone
pulpit
A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...
and red marble seven sided
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
.
There is also a complete scheme of
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
windows by the eminent firm of Clayton & Bell, including the great west window, which commemorates
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...
—who in 1896, before his accession to the throne, had attended a service at the church.
The great organ was built by the firm of William Hill & Son, London, originally provided with 14
organ stop
An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air (known as ''wind'') to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; each can be "on" (admitting the passage of air ...
s when installed in 1894, then enlarged to 48 speaking stops (including the only full-length 32' Open Wood stop between London and Winchester) in 1905; in 1915 it was encased in a double fronted organ-case of magnificent proportions designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson. The organ was restored in 1987 and was one of the first to be awarded a historic organ certificate by the
British Institute of Organ Studies
The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) is a British organisation and registered charity which aims to promote study and appreciation of all aspects of the pipe organ. Further, it acts as a lobbying body to raise awareness of organ issue ...
as being of international importance. It has informed the restoration of other large Hill organs, including those of Peterborough and Lichfield cathedrals and also Eton College.
All Saints Hove today
The church is regularly open to casual visitors, and is often used as a venue for live music, in addition to holding services several days a week. Sunday school and
crèche
Crèche or creche (from Latin ''cripia'' "crib, cradle") may refer to:
*Child care center, an organization of adults who take care of children in place of their parents
*Nativity scene, a group of figures arranged to represent the birth of Jesus ...
facilities are also provided.
The architectural importance of the building has been recognised through the award of
Grade I listed status, which is granted to "buildings of outstanding or national architectural or historic interest".
Vicarage
The last vicar of the united parish of Hove-cum-Preston, Revd Walter Kelly, had built a
vicarage
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically own ...
for the parish, but after the split it lay within the boundaries of Preston parish. Revd Peacey acted quickly to get Hove its own vicarage, obtaining land from the estate of the Stanford family upon which both a vicarage and a church could be built. The Stanfords had acquired large areas of land around Preston and Hove in the 18th century, after
Preston Manor had come into the family, but by the late 19th century much of it was being developed for residential use.
A plot of land in the area then known as "West Brighton", on the corner of the roads which became Eaton Road and The Drive, was secured, and John Loughborough Pearson was asked to design and build a vicarage that would complement the church although its design predated that of the church as built by several years.
The red-brick building, constructed in 1883, has elements of the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
style of 400 years previously and is listed at Grade II.
Gallery
Image:All Saints Hove west end exterior view.jpg, The west elevation, showing the narthex, west window, and incomplete tower
Image:All Saints Church, Eaton Road, Hove 06.JPG, The southern elevation, looking to the northeast
Image:All Saints Hove sanctuary.jpg, High altar, reredos, sedilia, and part of the east window
Image:All Saints Hove choir stalls.jpg, High altar, reredos, and sedilia, as seen from the south choir stalls
Image:All Saints Hove nave.jpg, Nave, looking east
Image:All Saints Hove organ case and north window.jpg, The double-fronted gothic organ case, designed by the architect's son, and north transept (rose) window
Image:All Saints Hove Hill pipe organ.jpg, Chancel façade of the pipe organ
Image:All Saints Hove east end exterior view.jpg, View of the east end including chapel apse, east window and towers
Image:All Saints Church, Eaton Road, Hove 09.JPG, Small spire on the eastern end
Image:All Saints Church, Eaton Road, Hove 04.JPG, The west window, commemorating King Edward VII
Image:All Saints Hove west window.jpg, West window, viewed from inside
Image:All Saints Church, Eaton Road, Hove 07.JPG, One of the stained glass windows on the southern elevation
Image:All Saints Hove south transept window.jpg, South window, viewed from inside
Image:All Saints, Hove glass 27.jpg, North window of the narthex, designed by Martin Travers
Howard Martin Otho Travers (19 February 1886 – 25 July 1948) was an English church artist and designer.
Travers was born in Margate, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School, entered the Royal College of Art in 1904, and was awarded its Diploma in A ...
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
There are 24 Grade I listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brigh ...
*
List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove
The city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, has more than 100 extant churches and other places of worship, which serve a variety of Christian denominations and other religions. More than 50 former religious buildings, althou ...
*
List of new ecclesiastical buildings by J. L. Pearson
John Loughborough Pearson (1817–97) was an English architect whose works were mainly ecclesiastical. He was born in Brussels, United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and spent his childhood in Durham, England, Durham. Pearson started his architectu ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
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*
External links
{{Authority control
Church of England church buildings in Brighton and Hove
Churches completed in 1889
19th-century Church of England church buildings
Hove, All Saints
Grade I listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
Hove, All Saints Church