St Paul's Church, Stockingford, is a Church of England parish church in

Stockingford Stockingford is a suburb of the town of Nuneaton, in the county of Warwickshire, England, about west of the town centre. Stockingford first appeared in records in 1157, named ''Stoccingford'', derived from the Old English ''Stocc''; to root up t ...

, Nuneaton,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, England. It is part of the

Diocese of Coventry The Diocese of Coventry is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Coventry, who sits at Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, and is assisted by one suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Warwick. The dioce ...

Location

The church is on the west side of Church Road, near the junction with St Paul's Road. Its churchyard is about .

History

In about 1819 there were riots in

. Homeworkers in the local

hosiery Hosiery, also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also known generically as ...

industry were told that their wages were to be reduced. They took to the streets in protest and the local militia were brought in to deal with the unrest. The Church of St Nicholas in Nuneaton decided that a chapel of ease should be built to quell the violent folk of Stockingford. In 1822 work began on the building, and in 1824 St Paul's Church in Stockingford was consecrated.

Building

The church is recorded in 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, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The original construction was begun in 1822, on designs by John Russell of Leamington Spa.St Paul's Stockingford Design and Access Statement, Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Counci

/ref> The building has been added to several times since.

1822 original building

The foundation stone was laid in 1822. The oldest part of the church consists of 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

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

which were constructed in a neo-classical style. The roofs of the nave and tower are in slate and lead respectively. The walls are of dark red handmade brickwork, with large diamond-pattern coloured windows. The nave has a flat plaster ceiling, and originally had a suspended oak floor. The original building had an apsidal chancel which was nothing more than a semi-circular recess. At its opening, the church had 520 free seats and 88 other seats. The total cost of building was £2000. The church was consecrated and dedicated on 22 April 1824 by the Hon. Henry Ryder, bishop of the then united Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry.

1897 chancel

The

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. Ov ...

was added in 1897 by G.B. Vialls in a Gothic revival style, at a cost of £1200. The church then consisted of a chancel and nave with a west tower. There are vestries to the north and south sides of the chancel. The chancel has an open timber framed ceiling with plaster infill. The floor is of stone slabs with some wood block areas around the choir stalls. There is a decorative

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

made from encaustic glass tiles on the altar platform. At some point since its installation, the mosaic was covered with carpet, and forgotten about until it was rediscovered in 2008. At the same time as the construction of the chancel, the church was reordered and the seats in the nave were replaced with pews.

1995 extension

In 1995, St. Paul's Church extended its church building with the addition of the Parish Centre. This extension was built at the south side of the Church, with funds raised by the people of Stockingford, supported by an EU grant. A new south porch was added to connect the church building to the Church Centre. Some pews were removed to provide access to the porch, which can be seen in the adjacent picture. The centre was dedicated on 15 January 1995 by the then

Bishop of Coventry The Bishop of Coventry is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Coventry in the Province of Canterbury. In the Middle Ages, the Bishop of Coventry was a title used by the bishops known today as the Bishop of Lichfield. The presen ...

, Simon Barrington-WardA look at the past helps celebrate the future: Church's landmark anniversary is commemorated with a book on its history, The Free Librar

/ref> and opened by the youngest and eldest members of the congregation, Thom Udall and Fred Ward.

2008 re-ordering

Work on re-ordering the Church building began in September 2008, involving the removal of the pews, the restyling of the Church interior, and the creation of a Church Hall for use by local community groups. The old pipe organ, installed in 1909 at a cost of £450, was labelled and dismantled, piece by piece, loaded onto a lorry and was taken to

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, France, where it was rebuilt in a Catholic church that reopened after 25 years. A digital organ was installed at St. Paul's in place of the old pipe organ. The old floor was taken up and replaced, and now consists of oak boards bonded to an insulated screed with

underfloor heating Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling that achieves indoor climate control for thermal comfort using hydronic or electrical heating elements embedded in a floor. Heating is achieved by conduction, radiation and ...

. There were significant settlement problems in the chancel area which were resolved by underpinning. WRENWaste Recycling Environmental Limited
/ref> gave a grant of £50,000 towards the fund for the re-ordering, helping to pay for the community aspects of the new build. In total, the re-ordering work took approximately ten weeks. During this time, a glass

dating from the chancel's construction in 1897 was discovered, which had been hidden under a carpet. The mosaic was cleaned, and left in place.St Paul’s given new lease of life, Coventry Telegraph
/ref>

Minor renovations and alterations

Clergy

The current vicar at St Paul's is the Rev Kate Massey.

Clock

When the tower was constructed in 1822–1823, it was fitted with a clock and bell. In 1867 a new clock was installed by H Bright of Leamington Spa. Unfortunately, the clock stopped in the 1970s and was not repaired. In the 1990s, the bell was deemed unsafe, fixed into position, and had its rope removed. In 1999, clockmakers

Smith of Derby Group Founded in 1856, the Smith of Derby Group are clockmakers based in Derby, England. Smith of Derby has been in operation continuously under five generations of the Smith family. History John Smith (21 December 1813 - 1886)Smith of Derby
/ref> restored the clock and bell.Time ticks away for millennium clock cash; Parish works on to pay for repair

/ref> For the first time in 30 years, the clock chimed at midnight on 1 January 2000, to mark the new millennium.Families' night to remember, The Free Library
/ref> With the bell now fixed in a rigid frame, the new clock mechanism uses a hammer to strike the bell. The new clock has three faces. The north and south faces are driven mechanically from the clock mechanism, while the west face is driven electronically.

Memorials

First World War

In 1922, the stained glass east window was installed at a cost of just £500 as a memorial to the 201 people of the area who lost their lives in the First World War. It was designed and installed by Mr R Anning Bell. To complete the memorial, oak panelling was erected underneath the window and was unveiled by Lieutenant CL Knox. A brass tablet, listing the names of the fallen soldiers, was revealed by Corporal W Beesley, and dedicated by Canon J Deed, vicar of Nuneaton. The churchyard contains the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, war grave of a

Royal Garrison Artillery The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) ...

soldier who died in 1918.

Second World War

In 1946, a memorial plaque in remembrance of the 17 men of the parish who died in the Second World War was unveiled underneath the 1914–18 memorial. The 1st Battalion Cambridge Regiment was stationed at Arbury Hall in 1941. The soldiers worshipped at St Paul's, but 343 lost their lives between 1942 and 1945 on active duty in the Far East. A plaque in memory of the men was fastened next to the war memorial.

Connection with George Eliot

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

, in her book "

Scenes of Clerical Life ''Scenes of Clerical Life'' is George Eliot's first published work of fiction, a collection of three short stories, published in book form; it was the first of her works to be released under her famous pseudonym. The stories were first publis ...

" referred to Stockingford as Paddiford Common.Stockingford, Nuneaton and North Warwickshire Family History Society
/ref>
/ref> St Paul's church is mentioned as the 'chapel of ease'. The character Revd. Tryan is based upon the Revd. John Edmund Jones who was the vicar at St Paul's 1828–1831, and the character Mr Landor is based upon Mr Craddock, who laid the foundation stone of the church in 1822.George Eliot Country
/ref>

References

External links

St Paul's, Stockingford
– information on opening times, services, history of the church and photographs. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stockingford, St Paul's Church Church of England church buildings in Warwickshire Commissioners' church buildings Grade II listed churches in Warwickshire Buildings and structures in Nuneaton