The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs is the

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church serving

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origi ...

, a town and seaside resort which is part of the

Borough of Hastings A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

, England. The present church, which combines a plain, unadorned Gothic Revival exterior with a lavishly decorated interior featuring extensive early 20th-century paintings by

Nathaniel Westlake Nathaniel Hubert John Westlake FSA (1833–1921) was a 19th-century British artist specialising in stained glass. Career Nathaniel Westlake was born in Romsey in 1833. He began to design for the firm of Lavers & Barraud, Ecclesiastical Designe ...

, is the third building used for Roman Catholic worship in the seaside resort. James Burton's new town of 1827, immediately west of Hastings, was home to a convent from 1848; public worship then transferred to a new church nearby in 1866. When this burnt down, prolific and "distinguished" architect

Charles Alban Buckler Charles Alban Buckler (1825–1905) was an English author, topographer, architect, artist and officer of arms. According to Historic England, he "became one of the most distinguished of the early to mid-Victorian Catholic architects."Historic ...

designed a replacement. The church remains in use as the main place of worship in a parish which extends into nearby Hollington, and has been

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

at Grade II by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

for its architectural and historical importance.

History

St Leonards-on-Sea was conceived and built as a new town by

James Burton James Edward Burton (born August 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana) is an American guitarist. A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 2001 (his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards), Burton has also been recognized ...

, a builder, property developer and speculator. In 1828, he bought a large area of wooded, sloping land (formerly part of the Manor of Gensing) which had a long shoreline facing the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...

. He spent the next few years laying out a high-class planned community with houses, shops, hotels, markets, an Anglican church and facilities suitable for a fashionable seaside resort. Within a few years, it rivalled its ancient neighbour

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

in size and popularity. A Roman Catholic place of worship was soon provided in the growing town. Rev. John Jones, the Honorary Chaplain of the Bavarian Embassy in London, received from the will of Lady Barbara Stanley a bequest of £10,000, of land and a house in St Leonards-on-Sea, all to be used for "religious purposes" for the benefit of Roman Catholics. He planned to build a

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Angl ...

for

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

, and extended the house for their use. They declared it unsuitable, and the proposed chapel and convent—large, intricately designed buildings in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

style, conceived by Charles Parker—were not built. Work on less ambitious

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

-style buildings began in 1837, overseen by

A.W.N. Pugin Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin ( ; 1 March 181214 September 1852) was an English architect, designer, artist and critic with French and, ultimately, Swiss origins. He is principally remembered for his pioneering role in the Gothic Revival st ...

, and a newly founded order of nuns—The Society of the Holy Child Jesus—moved in. Pugin started work on a convent chapel in 1848, but it was not completed until 1869 (by his son Edward Welby) and the convent refectory initially served as a temporary chapel for the sisters and the general public. The permanent chapel was dedicated to St Michael and All Angels. Relations between the convent sisters and the parish were difficult, and in 1866 a new church was built for public use nearby, after which the convent chapel reverted to private use for The Society of the Holy Child Jesus only. The chosen site, on the west side of Magdalen Road near the convent, was above the east portal of Hastings Tunnel, a railway tunnel near

Warrior Square station A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

. The church was designed by Charles Alban Buckler, a Roman Catholic convert and "one of the most distinguished early to mid-Victorian Roman Catholic architects". It was founded on 21 August 1865 and opened for public worship on 24 May 1866, and was consecrated in 1868 by the Bishop of Southwark Thomas Grant. Its most distinctive fixture was a large

pietà The Pietà (; meaning " pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific for ...

carved in oak. It was dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury (

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and the ...

) and the English Martyrs ( Catholics executed during the Reformation) and was registered for marriages in June 1866. The church was destroyed by fire on 3 January 1887. Within two months, a tin tabernacle had been erected on the site to allow worship to continue while a new church was designed and built. Charles Alban Buckler was again asked to design the replacement church. Construction started on 30 March 1888, although the

foundation stone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid on 21 July of that year. Builder Edmund Boniface executed Buckler's design, and the new Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs opened to the public on 6 July 1889. Between 1908 and 1911,

painted the interior with a range of vivid

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...

s depicting scenes from the Bible. Much of this was

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

led, but the work is unusually extensive and it is unusual for such designs to have survived in churches. Weather damage necessitated repairs in the 1950s, but by 1981 the murals' condition was so poor that

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used. ...

ing over them appeared to be the only course of action. Enough money was raised for a full restoration to take place; artist Charles Camm was responsible for this.

Architecture

There is a great contrast between the austere, minimalist exterior of the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs and its elaborately decorated interior. Architecturally, Charles Alban Buckler was a medievalist who worked almost exclusively in the

style—particularly

Early English Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

. His church at St Leonards-on-Sea was a good example of this: typical Gothic exterior features included

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with four ring ...

and tall

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet ...

s, a multi-sided

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

and

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

ing. The walls are of

ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be con ...

and

Bath Stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

with some irregular rock facing. The plan consists of a

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-typ ...

with six

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

and vaulted side chapels treated like simple arcades, 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. ...

with its own side chapels (all with

apsidal In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

ends), a porch, sanctuary,

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 narth ...

and mortuary chapel (a later addition). The building lacks a tower or spire, and the effect from the outside is an appearance "as sparing as a

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

s' church". The "richly decorated" interior has been described as "unexpected" after this simple exterior. The vividly coloured painted murals, some purely decorative and some representative of Biblical scenes, date from 1908–1911 and have been repaired and enhanced since. Some windows have

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 ...

, apparently by

Charles Eamer Kempe Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichg ...

and the

Clayton and Bell Clayton and Bell was one of the most prolific and proficient British workshops of stained-glass windows during the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. The partners were John Richard Clayton (1827–1913) and Alfred Bell (1832 ...

and Hardman & Co. firms. Nathaniel Westlake's images include St Michael (in the side chapel dedicated to St George), the English Martyrs and the Hand of God above the chancel arch, various saints and prophets on the chancel ceiling, a Nativity on the south wall and a Last Supper on the north wall. Original fittings include some pews in the nave, a carved organ case, a marble font with carvings depicting the Seven Sacraments, a similar pulpit with images of saints and (in the

Lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chapel or a Marian chapel, ...

) a Bath Stone altar with depictions of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and angels.

The church today

Church of the Holy Redeemer, Hollington, Hastings

The Church of St Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs was

at Grade II by

on 13 December 2006. This defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest". As of February 2001, there were 521 Grade II listed buildings, and 535 listed buildings of all grades, in the borough of Hastings. In an architectural survey of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton's churches undertaken in 2005 before the church was listed, it was stated that it was "likely to be listable" in the future. The authors noted that Buckler's other churches: St Richard's (

Slindon Slindon is a mostly rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, containing a developed nucleus amid woodland. Much of Slindon's woodland belongs to the National Trust on the southern edge of the escarpment of th ...

St Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

, and the former

St Peter's Church St. Peter's Church, Old St. Peter's Church, or other variations may refer to: * St. Peter's Basilica in Rome Australia * St Peter's, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia * St Peters Church, St Peters, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia ...

(

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on t ...

) were already listed and the interior decoration scheme "

ade Ade, Adé, or ADE may refer to: Aeronautics *Ada Air's ICAO code *Aden International Airport's IATA code *Aeronautical Development Establishment, a laboratory of the DRDO in India Medical * Adverse Drug Event *Antibody-dependent enhancement * AD ...

it special". It is one of several listed churches in St Leonards-on-Sea: the Anglican churches of Christ Church, St Peter's and

St John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given ...

are classed at the higher Grade II*, while St Leonard's Anglican parish church, St Leonard's Baptist Church and the

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

St Mary Magdalene's Church, along with the former

St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church St Leonards-on-Sea Congregational Church is a former Congregational church in St Leonards-on-Sea, part of the town and borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. Considered "one of the most ambitious Nonconformist buildings in Sussex", the s ...

, are also Grade II-listed. Pugin's former convent chapel, now disused, also has Grade II* status. The church is one of two in the parish of St Leonards-on-Sea and Hollington. This is one of five parishes (consisting of seven churches) which make up the

Deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or reside ...

of St Leonards-on-Sea, which is in turn one of 13 deaneries in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton The Roman Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton (in la, Dioecesis Arundeliensis-Brichtelmestunensis) is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese in southern England covering the counties of Sussex and Surrey (excluding Spelthorne, which is part ...

. The other church in the parish is the Church of the Holy Redeemer in Hollington, an ancient village which developed in the interwar and postwar eras into a large suburb of Hastings. Wilfred Mangan's

Vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

brick church of 1934 became part of the parish in 1959 and was extended and reordered internally in the 1980s. There is another Roman Catholic church in the borough:

Our Lady Star of the Sea Our or OUR may refer to: * The possessive form of " we" * Our (river), in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany * Our, Belgium, a village in Belgium * Our, Jura, a commune in France * Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR), a government utility regulato ...

(1882) in

Hastings Old Town Hastings Old Town is an area in Hastings, England roughly corresponding to the extent of the town prior to the nineteenth century. It lies mainly within the easternmost valley of the current town. The shingle beach known as The Stade (the old S ...

. Two Masses are celebrated each Sunday at the church.

Confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...

is heard weekly on Saturday mornings. The church is licensed for worship in accordance with the

Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 The Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which governs the registration and legal recognition of places of worship. It applies only in England and Wales, and does not cover the Church of Engla ...

and has the registration number 31803.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury and English Martyrs, Saint Leonards-on-Sea Roman Catholic churches completed in 1889 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Grade II listed churches in East Sussex Churches in Hastings Roman Catholic churches in East Sussex Gothic Revival architecture in East Sussex Gothic Revival church buildings in England Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England

History

Architecture

The church today

See also

References

Bibliography