St Andrew's, Roker (1905–7), is a
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...
in
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It is recognised as one of the finest churches of the first half of the twentieth century and the masterpiece of
Edward Schroeder Prior
Edward Schroeder Prior (1852–1932) was a British architect, instrumental in establishing the Arts and Crafts movement. He was one of the foremost theorists of the second generation of the movement, writing extensively on architecture, art, c ...
. The design of St Andrew's drew together many of the strings of Prior's philosophy and approach to design and building. Three years before commencing St Andrew's, Prior had written that the architect's first purpose was to provide;
"a dignified distinct building dedicated to the service of the Church. Church architecture, least of all, has been able to go beyond the trivial efforts of traditional picturesqueness; least of all our building it has been monumental".
At St Andrew's, Prior achieved a monumental church free from style. His experiments in structure, concern for materials and means of building reached their apogee at St Andrew's. The church was
listed Grade I in 1950.
Origins
Throughout the 19th century Sunderland's population had been rapidly expanding. By the end of the century only the area around
Roker Park
Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being seated; it h ...
remained undeveloped. The development of the area prompted the need for a new church. The
Roker
Roker ( ) is a seaside resort in Sunderland, city of Sunderland district, Tyne and Wear. England. It is located north of the River Wear and Monkwearmouth, east of the southern part of Fulwell with the coastal resort of Seaburn to its nort ...
and
Fulwell New Church Committee was set up in 1903 to raise funds for the church. A local shipbuilder
John Priestman offered £6000 towards the construction in memorial to his mother. As conditions of the offer Priestman required the church to be completed by 31 December 1905, to retain the right to approve the arrangements of the new church and to provide the living for a vicar of his own choice.
Prior seemed fated to win the commission.
B. F. Wescott, Prior's tutor at Cambridge, had been
Bishop of Durham
The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...
until his death in 1901. His successor, the Reverend
Handley Moule
Handley Carr Glyn Moule (; 23 December 18418 May 1920) was an evangelical Anglican theologian, writer, poet, and Bishop of Durham from 1901 to 1920.
Biography
Moule was schooled at home before entering Trinity College, Cambridge in 1860, where ...
, was an original trustee of Prior's
Henry Martyn Hall, Cambridge. The vicar of the adjacent
Monkwearmouth
Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bishopwearmouth ...
church the Revd. D. S. Boutflower was a close friend of Prior's brother Charles.
Priestman appears to have been a religious radical, heavily influenced by the late 19th century liturgical movement that sought a return to the importance of the word and communion, rather than placing an emphasis on the mysteries of the church and sacraments. These views were reflected in his design requirements for the church. He wished the church to seat 700, and most importantly for the entire congregation to have an uninterrupted view of the altar and pulpit, with no chancel screen and good acoustics. These requirements had a major influence on Prior's design.
The design
The first plan of January 1905 envisaged a nave, side aisles to the north and south, a choir, a square-ended chancel, short transepts and porches to the north, south and east sides. The design provided for a capacity of 590. Priestman wanted 700. Prior re-worked the design adding a morning chapel and moving the south porch to the west. This arrangement provided for 688.
The hilltop exposed site by the sea and availability of stone suggested a similar structure and approach to that taken at
Holy Trinity Church, Bothenhampton in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...
. However dressed stone was too expensive and St Andrew's was designed as a reinforced concrete building. The use of the material has a significant influence on the design, for example the nave arches are shaped to ease the pouring of concrete.
The church has a five-bayed nave 52' wide with an extraordinary single span roof with thick, deep arches that spring low from massive walls. The chancel is narrow, shallow and tapered towards the east end. The nave walls are 3'6" thick at floor level, which reduce to 2'6" at window sill height.
The transverse nave arches basically follow the design at Holy Trinity but the span of the roof is 42' instead of 29'. They are brought down into the church as internal buttresses. The buttresses are pierced to make side passages, the weight being transferred to paired columns of a pattern of Saxon origin, with simple cushion capitals similar to those depicted in
William Lethaby
William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 – 17 July 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of ...
's ''The Church of Sancta Sophia, Constantinople''.
The stone masonry is of local
Marsden limestone from a quarry three miles north of the site. Fulwell Quarry was nearer but this was highly mechanised. Prior initiated a rediscovery of masonry skills in conjunction with the quarry company. Prior,
Randall Wells
Albert Randall Wells (1877–1942) was an English Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts architect, designer, craftsman and inventor.
He was the son of an architect, Arthur Wells of Hastings. After a practical training in joinery and foundin ...
and the masons explored the limits of the stone through the construction and adapted the design accordingly. The roof is covered in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
slate.
The interior and exterior finish is of unplastered uncoursed random-rubble with only the quoins and voussoirs dressed to a flat surface. In early plans it appeared to be the intention to leave the walls as exposed concrete. The chancel was originally left with its shutter marks displayed until
MacDonald Gill
Leslie MacDonald Gill (6 October 1884 – 14 January 1947), commonly known as MacDonald Gill or Max Gill, was a noted early-twentieth-century British graphic designer, cartographer, artist and architect.
Biography
Born in Brighton, Gill was o ...
implemented Prior's suggested decorative scheme.
Exterior
A prominent square tower was located over the chancel aligned with the road leading to the sea. Prior regarded "a square-topped spireless tower was an expression of "democratic growth". The positioning of the tower over the chancel blurred the distinction between nave and chancel, clergy and parishioners. The tower has with angle turrets that rise to pinnacles above the castellated parapet. There are pairs of round headed openings on each face that open to ventilation shafts leading to either side of the altar. The bell openings have corbelled lintels. To the north east corner of the tower there is a round tower staircase that acts as a buttress. The tower forms a memorial to Priestman's mother.
The windows and their openings make a major contribution to the character of the church. Those of the nave have stone block mullions with simple feathering. They are
crossed braced with transoms with triangles above formed by simple canted stone. The small windows of the tower show a distinct Saxon influence, directly quoting
St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber
St Peter's Church is the former parish church of Barton-upon-Humber in North Lincolnshire, England. It is one of the best known Anglo-Saxon buildings, in part due to its role in Thomas Rickman's identification of the style. It has been subj ...
. The openings are spanned by two stones meeting at the apex. They project forward to form a rain hood. In the chancel the tracery is more complex with stepped 'capitals' formed by three blocks in the lower tracery each faintly suggesting the Crucifixion. The windows are glazed in Prior's Early English Glass, except for the chancel east window and the
Lady Chapel
A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chape ...
. The iron glazing bars were made by Priestman's yard.
Externally the church appears simple and massive. The nave wall is set back from window sill level upwards allowing light further into the interior but creating a visual impression that the building is rooted in the ground and that the walls are much thicker than they are. Buttresses are continued up between the windows to near apex height. Roofed pinnacles at parapet level imply their structural continuation. The parapet itself is high and continuous around the nave and transepts suppressing the verticality of the building.
The tower, unusually located over the chancel, has four hexagonal corner towers with two small openings in each face. They were originally capped with pyramid roofs, but these have been removed due to wind damage. Each face of the tower has a broad shallow bell chamber window. The nave roof appears to be carried through the tower to a vestigial nave roof projecting from its east end.
The porches are simple lean-to structures to form entrances.
Services
Ventilation, heating and lighting were integrated into the structure. In addition to the ventilation shafts in the tower that worked on a stack effect, heating shafts were provided within the mass concrete walls connecting to a
plenum
Plenum may refer to:
* Plenum chamber, a chamber intended to contain air, gas, or liquid at positive pressure
* Plenism, or ''Horror vacui'' (physics) the concept that "nature abhors a vacuum"
* Plenum (meeting), a meeting of a deliberative assem ...
system running below the floor to a chamber below the chancel where high indirect radiators were located. A Blackman fan was capable of producing of air per hour into the church.
Furnishings
Prior called on a range of associates from the Movement creating a range of very fine fittings. The
reredos
A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images.
The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...
is a tapestry made to a design of
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter.
Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...
, ''
The Adoration of the Magi
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'', and was made by
Morris & Co
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875) was a furniture, furnishings and decorative arts manufacturer and retailer founded by the artist and designer William Morris with friends from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Pre-Raphaelites. With ...
, as is the chancel carpet.
Ernest Gimson
Ernest William Gimson (; 21 December 1864 – 12 August 1919) was an English furniture designer and architect. Gimson was described by the art critic Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers". Today his reputat ...
provided the altar rails, Bishop's chair, altar and processional crosses, candlesticks, pulpit, choir seats and lectern. The foundation stone was carved by
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsma ...
. After Prior's death MacDonald Gill painted the dome over the chancel to Prior's sketch scheme, depicting the days of the Creation.
The
baptistry
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptist ...
contains a stone bowl font by Wells with carved hexagonal piers and a wood cover by
Robert (Mouseman) Thompson
Robert "Mouseman" Thompson (7 May 1876 – 8 December 1955), also known as Mousey Thompson, was a British furniture maker. He was born and lived in Kilburn, Yorkshire, England, where he set up a business manufacturing oak furniture, which featu ...
of Kilburn.
The walls of the nave are panelled in oak to 7' 8" high with boards of uneven width, fixed with hand made nails.
Henry Payne designed the glass in the two main windows in the church: the east window which depicts the Ascension and the south transept window depicting the biblical text “Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden”. In the lower lights of the south transept window, Payne drew his figures in contemporary dress and in the upper lights a group of angels are shown carrying Christ's cross.
[Catalogue for the exhibition "Christopher Whall 1849–1924: Arts & Crafts Stained Glass Worker" organised by the William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest from 17 November 1979 to 3 February 1980 included several Henry Payne designs for stained glass windows which were displayed at that exhibition.]
A fine peal of 10 bells was installed in 1948 as a War Memorial. These bells were cast in Croydon by
Gillett & Johnston
Gillett & Johnston was a clockmaker and bell foundry based in Croydon, England from 1844 until 1957. Between 1844 and 1950, over 14,000 tower clocks were made at the works. The company's most successful and prominent period of activity as a be ...
. The largest, or tenor, bell weighs 22cwt 2qtrs 26 lbs, or 2550 lbs, or 1150 kg.
Construction
As at
Home Place, Kelling in
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, Prior disposed of the normal method of procurement, there was no overall contract. Contracts and estimates were issued and received as the works proceeded and as was necessary. Priestman & Co, the shipbuilding concern of the church's main benefactor, were responsible for various works including all the iron work and the main doors.
Prior and
Randall Wells
Albert Randall Wells (1877–1942) was an English Arts and Crafts movement, Arts and Crafts architect, designer, craftsman and inventor.
He was the son of an architect, Arthur Wells of Hastings. After a practical training in joinery and foundin ...
acted in partnership. Wells acted as resident architect sending drawings of details to Prior at regular intervals. Prior approved or altered the details as he desired. Prior was careful to give full credit to Wells.
Organ
Priestman was an accomplished organist with an organ in his private residence and seems to have ensured that the church's organ was well placed in the north transept. Ostensibly it is a fine
Norman & Beard organ but it has been discovered to be the
Forster and Andrews
Forster and Andrews was a British organ building company between 1843 and 1924.
The company was formed by James Alderson Forster (1818–1886) and Joseph King Andrews (1820–1896), who had been employees of the London organ builder J. C. Bisho ...
organ from
St Wulfram's Church, Grantham
St Wulfram's Church, Grantham, is the Anglican parish church of Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. The church is a Grade I listed building and has the second tallest spire in Lincolnshire after St James' Church, Louth.
Vicars
The Reverend W ...
.
Completion
The church was finished on 17 July 1907.
Priestman Hall
To the west, the church has a very robust parish hall in the same style as the main building (though it doesn't have the upturned boat shape), called The Priestman Hall and constructed in 1928. It is separately listed as Grade II.
Lych gate
A
lych gate
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 added to the south-east corner of the site as a War Memorial in 1920. With the churchyard walls, it was listed as Grade II (but the listing text states "probably 1908").
[
]
References
Sources
* Garnham, Trevor; ''St Andrew's Church, Roker: Edward Prior'', Architecture in detail, Phaidon, 1996
External links
Parish website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roker, St Andrew's Church
Church of England church buildings in Tyne and Wear
Grade I listed churches in Tyne and Wear
Churches in the City of Sunderland
E. S. Prior buildings
Sunderland