St Andrew's Church is an
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
church in Church Road,
Hove
Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove.
Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...
, in the
English city of
Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...
. It is usually referred to as St Andrew (Old Church) to distinguish it from
another St Andrew's Church in Waterloo Street, elsewhere in Hove. It served as Hove's
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...
for several centuries until 1892,
although the building was in a state of near-ruin until Hove began to grow from an isolated village to a popular residential area in the early 19th century.
History
Hove developed independently of, and separately from, neighbouring
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, beginning as a linear village along a single street, now known as Hove Street, running from north to south. A church was established in
mediaeval times, possibly around the 12th century,
at an isolated location in fields to the northeast of the village; access was only possible from the west. The original building was replaced with a simple
Norman-style church with an aisled
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 a tower. By the 13th century a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...
had been added. This church functioned as the parish church of Hove until 1531, when the parish was united with that of
Preston (to the northeast) and became the parish of Hove-cum-Preston. Although its parish church status remained, a declining population was unable to maintain it. By the 18th century the nave and chancel were crumbling; parts of the roof were removed; and the tower fell down in 1801.
The church's fortunes changed with the development of the
Brunswick estate and other residential areas around the old village in the early 19th century. At this time, Brighton had expanded to the boundary between its own parish and that of Hove-cum-Preston, so any more development would fall within Hove; as a result, Hove's population rose from 100 in 1801 to 2,500 by 1841. By 1871 it was to reach 11,000, as most of the available land west of the boundary was systematically built on.
Construction of the Brunswick estate began in 1824 and St Andrew's Church in Waterloo Street was built to serve it in 1828 (as a
chapel of ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...
).
A different kind of change in the church's fortunes came about following formation of The Brighton General Gas Light Company in 1825. Although production of
coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
was notorious for the smell it produced, the company acquired a two-acre site in the fields between Hove Street and St. Andrew's Church, and in 1832 built a gasworks there. The process required substantial tonnage of coal, delivered by horse-drawn cart on the unmade tracks in the vicinity, and removal of by-products including coke, coal tar, sulphur and ammonia. This industrial site with tall chimney and two gasometers next to the churchyard was a considerable intrusion on the populace of Hove. By 1861 the site had doubled in size and there were now five gasometers, ranging in size from small to large. Due to spiralling demand a large new works was opened in Shoreham Harbour at Portslade-by-Sea in 1871, and by 1885 all gas manufacture in Brighton and Hove had been transferred there. The Hove site, in a by now primarily residential area, was then used for storage only.
Due to the increases in population parish officials realised that a rebuilding of the original St Andrew's would be needed to provide enough capacity. A meeting was held at a nearby
public house
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
on 14 September 1833 to propose its restoration. The following week, a vote was taken on whether to demolish it instead and rebuild it on a new, more accessible site; the parish decided against this.
Architect
George Basevi was asked to assess how much the reconstruction would cost. He quoted £1,870 exclusive of internal fittings and his fee, both of which were just over £50 His father, a Brunswick estate resident, ultimately paid the latter. The parish borrowed £2,000, and rebuilding commenced in 1834. London-based building firm
Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...
& Green carried out the construction work to Basevi's design.
The budget for the construction work was tight. This caused some friction between the clerk of works and Butler. Basevi acknowledged to the Church Building Committee that he had requested some additional changes that had not been budgeted for. Butler finally accepted an amount substantially less than he had originally claimed for the work. The overspend was on the churchyard and its walls that were not completed until 1837.
St Andrew's was reopened on 18 July 1836, with a
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
of 430. 80 seats were subject to pew rents. A 200-seat extension, in the form of a gallery at the west end, was added in 1839.
Rev. Walter Kelly, vicar since 1834 retired in 1878, when the united parish was split again into the Parish of Hove and the Parish of Preston. At this point, St Andrew's became once again the parish church of Hove. However, the new vicar, Rev. Thomas Peacey, wanted to build a new parish church;
this happened in 1892 with the construction of
All Saints Church, and St Andrew's became a chapel of ease to All Saints until it gained its own parish in 1957.
The parish covers an established residential area centred on the Hove Street/Church Road crossroads.
Local maps show that in 1844 the church was centred inside a roughly square site, probably less than two acres in area. By 1873 the northern boundary had moved as far as the residential development in Monmouth Street (now demolished) the churchyard being a long rectangle with an area several times that of the original site.
The churchyard was cut down in size twice, destroying historic graves. In 1880, Church Road was widened, cutting ten feet from the southern side (an
Act of Parliament was used to
compulsorily purchase the land) In 1972, East Sussex County Council took much of the land on the northern side to build a school.
Other graves were destroyed when the parish hall was built in one corner of the grounds.
Architecture and fixtures
Dating from 1834, just before the time when the
Early English style became the dominant force in ecclesiastical architecture locally and elsewhere, St Andrew's Church was designed in an unusual style which has been described
as "Neo-Norman". This refers to a revival of the original
Norman architecture
The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used f ...
of the 11th and 12th centuries. Although the whole of the exterior was rebuilt, some original Norman-era parts were retained inside, and possibly influenced George Basevi's design decision.
A series of round columns, pointed arcade arches and parts of the roof survive from the mediaeval era.
The box-pews and
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, accesse ...
were replaced in 1879, when internal
restoration work was carried out. A new font was installed in 1865.
In 1953 a
lychgate
A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...
was installed in the southern face of the church.
Graves and memorials

Many notable people have been buried at St Andrew's Church, although not all graves survive; and other people are commemorated by memorial tablets inside the church.
The
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the ...
artist
Copley Fielding
Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (22 November 1787 – 3 March 1855), commonly called Copley Fielding, was an English painter born in Sowerby, near Halifax, and famous for his watercolour landscapes. At an early age Fielding became a pu ...
, who lived in Hove in his later years, was buried in a tomb in the northeast corner of the churchyard after his death in nearby
Worthing
Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...
in 1855. There is a memorial tablet in the south aisle. The Vallances,
Lords of the Manor of Hove for 150 years, have their family vault outside the chancel.
Their name is also commemorated by two streets within the parish, Vallance Road and Vallance Gardens; and the wider area was originally known locally as the Vallance Estate.
The family of George Basevi, the church's architect, also have a vault and memorial stone inside the church—however, although his father, mother and sister were buried in it, George Basevi himself was buried at
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...
, where he died after falling from one of the towers.
Brighton architect
Charles Busby, who had been responsible for many churches in Brighton and Hove, was buried in the churchyard, but his tomb was removed when Church Road was widened in 1880.
Rev. Walter Kelly, who died in 1887 nine years after leaving office as vicar of Hove-cum-Preston, was buried in a tomb in the churchyard, and has a memorial stone in the chancel—it is the only memorial in that part of the church. Rev. Thomas Rooper, vicar of the other St Andrew's Church at Waterloo Street in the 1850s and 1860s, is commemorated by a wall tablet; next to it is a memorial for his son Major Edward Rooper, who died in the
Crimean War
The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...
.
The tomb of the Elliott family, another prominent Anglican family from Brighton, is in the churchyard.
Charlotte Elliott, the hymn writer, and her brothers Rev. Henry Venn Elliott and Rev.
Edward Bishop Elliott (associated with the curacies of
St Mary the Virgin Church and
St Mark's Church respectively) are all buried there. Rev. Dr James O'Brien, the first incumbent at St Patrick's Church in nearby Cambridge Road, is also commemorated nearby.
One man whose name is internationally famous is also buried in a grave on the south side of the church. Sir
George Everest, the geographer who undertook the
Great Trigonometric Survey
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India was a project that aimed to carry out a wikt:Special:Search/survey, survey across the Indian subcontinent with scientific precision. It was begun in 1802 by the British infantry officer William Lambton ...
in India while acting as Surveyor-General, was the first person to determine the exact height of the
world's highest mountain, which was then named after him. He died in London in December 1866 and was buried with his two children, sister and father-in-law. However, Sir George himself had no connection with Hove or Brighton at any time during his life, and none of the family members buried at the church were known to be associated with it.
George Augustus Westphal was the last surviving naval officer who served on
The Victory at
Trafalgar Trafalgar most often refers to:
* The Battle of Trafalgar (1805), fought near Cape Trafalgar, Spain
* Trafalgar Square, a public space and tourist attraction in London, England
Trafalgar may also refer to:
Places
* Cape Trafalgar, a headland in ...
and is buried in the churchyard. There is a plaque in his name inside the church. Another Trafalgar veteran, Rear-Admiral Sir
John Hindmarsh KH RN, the first Governor of South Australia, lies here too. There are also
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...
special memorials to a
North Staffordshire Regiment
The North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. The 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot was created on 21 April 1758 from the 2nd Battali ...
officer of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and a
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
officer of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
CWGC Cemetery report, details from casualty record.
The church today
St Andrew's Church is a Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
. As of February 2001, it was one of 70 Grade II*-listed buildings and structures, and 1,218 listed buildings of all grades, in the city of Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...
.
There are Morning and Evening Prayer services every day, two services of the Eucharist on Sunday mornings, and other regular celebrations of Holy Communion. There are children's and youth facilities, including a Sunday school
]
A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes.
Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...
.
See also
* Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
* List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
{{B&H Buildings
Hove
Hove ( ) is a seaside resort in East Sussex, England. Alongside Brighton, it is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove.
Originally a fishing village surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th century in respon ...
George Basevi buildings
Hove, Saint Andrew
Hove, Saint Andrew
Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
Hove, Saint Andrew
Hove