Holy Ghost Church is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, Hampshire, England. It was built from 1902 to 1903 by the priest and architect

Alexander Scoles Alexander Joseph Cory Scoles (30 November 1844 – 29 December 1920) was an architect and Roman Catholic priest.Directory of British Architects, 1834–1914: Vol. 2 (L-Z)' ed. Brodie, Antonia (London, 2001), p. 552 He designed many lancet styl ...

in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

. It was named after the old ruined medieval Chapel of the Holy Ghost in the town. It is located on the corner of Chapel Hill and Sherborne Road, north of Basingstoke railway station near the town centre. According to

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

, the church was "the last and best work" of Alexander Scoles. He is buried there and it 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, H ...

Church of the Holy Ghost
retrieved 27 May 2022

History

Foundation

From the early 1800s, priests came from

Woolhampton Woolhampton is a village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. The village straddles the Bath Road between the towns of Reading, to the east, and Newbury, to the west. Geography The village homes are clustered on the northern side o ...

to celebrate

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

in Basingstoke for the local Catholic population. In 1875, John Soper, a local non-Catholic dignitary, allowed for the current site of the church, next to the cemetery to be a Catholic church and school. In 1877, Holy Ghost Chapel and a schoolroom were opened on the site.

Basingstoke - Holy Ghost
''Taking Stock'', retrieved 27 May 2022

Construction

In 1901, Canon Alexander Scoles came to Basingstoke. He was the son of the architect

Joseph John Scoles Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches. Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...

, and brother of the Jesuit priest and architect

Ignatius Scoles Ignatius Scoles SJ (1 December 1834 – 15 July 1896) was a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, architect and writer. He designed churches and civic buildings and was the son of Joseph John Scoles.Guyana Times International' accessed 26 March 2013 Earl ...

. He was previously in the

Diocese of Clifton The Diocese of Clifton is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church centred at the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Clifton, England. The diocese covers the City and County of Bristol and the ceremonial counties of Gloucester ...

, had already designed many other Catholic churches and came to Basingstoke to design, build and be the priest at a new church. He paid for the construction of Holy Ghost Church. In 1902, the foundation stone of the church was laid. In 1903, the church was opened. The old Holy Ghost Chapel became the parish hall. The interior of the church was decorated 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 ...

. In 1920, Canon Scoles died and is buried in the church. The cemetery next to the church contains the graves of

Dorothy Liddell Dorothy Liddell, MBE (1890–1938) was a pioneering woman archaeologist and mentor to both Mary Leakey and Mary Eily de Putron. Early life Born Dorothy Mary Liddell to Emily Catherine Berry and her husband John Liddell at Benwell, England in ...

and

John Aidan Liddell John Aidan Liddell, (3 August 1888 – 31 August 1915) was a British military pilot and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commo ...

Parish

Holy Ghost Church is in the Holy Ghost

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

with St Bede's Church on Popley Way, Basingstoke. Holy Ghost no longer has a Sunday

, instead it occasionally has weekday Masses.

References

External links