The Church of
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day De ...
of Myra, usually known as St. Nicholas Church, is an
Anglican church in
Brighton,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. It is both the original parish church of Brighton and, after
St Helen's Church, Hangleton and
St Peter's Church in Preston village, the third oldest surviving building in the city of
Brighton and Hove
Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton an ...
. It is located on high ground at the junction of Church Street and Dyke Road in the city centre, very close to the main shopping areas. Due to its architectural significance the church is a 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 I ...
.
Early history
The
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086 records the presence of a church, valued at
£12,
in what was then the small fishing village of ''Bristelmestune''. Shortly afterwards, it was granted to the
Cluniac
The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began w ...
priory in nearby Lewes.
Although there is no certainty over where this church was located, it is possible that it stood on the site of the present-day St. Nicholas church: although Bristelmestune was located some distance to the south immediately adjacent to the coast, the ground there was marshy and suffered from erosion, and was vulnerable to attacks from invaders. The higher ground of the hill where the present church stands would have been better strategically and defensively, as well as being highly visible to residents of the village and the fishermen at sea.
Construction of the present church
In its current form, St. Nicholas church dates from the mid-14th century. A
font
In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...
from that period is preserved within the church.
It was carved in around 1170 and in 2001 was relocated to a prominent position at the west end of the church - the latest of several moves over the centuries.
The church, as originally constructed in the 14th century, consists of a substantial tower at the west end, 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.
...
and 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-typ ...
. Early additions include a
chantry
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
# a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or
# a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area in ...
, dating from the 15th century; these additional chapels were relatively common at that time.
A devastating attack from abroad occurred in June 1514,
when French raiders landed on the coast and burned the surrounding village (by now known as ''Brighthelmstone'')
in its entirety. Only the church, standing some distance inland and above the fire, survived.
The church was damaged twice in under two years by severe storms which caused significant destruction and loss of life elsewhere in Brighton, especially in the buildings of the "lower town" by the coast. The
Great Storm of 1703
The great storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703. High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships wer ...
, in November of that year, ripped lead from the roof; a subsequent storm, in August 1705, blew off all of the remaining sheets of lead. A commemorative tablet, dated 1705, was laid in the replacement roof.
Later in the 18th century, as Brighton's population began to grow, a series of pews, radiating outwards from the font in the centre, were installed. In the second half of that century, when the town's popularity grew substantially in response to
Dr. Russell's advocacy of the medicinal benefits of seawater (and, subsequently,
the Prince Regent's patronage), space was so limited that a series of galleries had to be built around the roof of the church, accessed by external staircases. At the time, St. Nicholas was the only
Anglican church in Brighton.
A model of the interior layout prior to the 1853 reconstruction can be seen today in one corner of the church.
Patron of the church
The ancient Southover Priory in Lewes was responsible for the church from the end of the 11th century until 1537, when the last prior surrendered it to
the Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has differen ...
. In 1540, it passed to
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex; in 1541, following his death by execution in July 1540, the
advowson was granted to
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves (german: Anna von Kleve; 1515 – 16 July 1557) was Queen of England from 6 January to 12 July 1540 as the fourth wife of King Henry VIII. Not much is known about Anne before 1527, when she became betrothed to Francis, Duke of ...
; and finally, in 1558, the
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's s ...
gained it. The holder of that title has been the patron of the church ever since.
Rebuilding in 1853
Brighton underwent considerable change during the reign of
King George IV (the former Prince Regent) from 1820 to 1830. The town continued to be fashionable, and the number of houses doubled during his 10½-year reign.
Eight
chapels of ease had been built by 1830 to alleviate the burden on the overcrowded St Nicholas church, but the latter remained popular as it was free to attend.
Furthermore, the
administrative vestry
A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
of the church (the equivalent of the present-day Church of England
parochial church council) was ideologically opposed to the responsibility they faced in raising funds for maintaining the fabric of the church. There were frequent disagreements and clashes with the vicar, Rev.
Henry Michell Wagner
Henry Michell Wagner (1792–1870) was a Church of England clergyman who was Vicar of Brighton between 1824 and 1870. He was a descendant of Melchior Wagner, hatmaker to the Royal Family, and married into a wealthy Sussex family who had a longs ...
, and deadlock was often reached over the issue of funding - to such an extent that the church became somewhat dilapidated and some of the windows in the chancel had to be boarded up.
The situation was resolved, however, in 1852, when the
Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, died. There were historical links between the Duke and both Rev. Wagner and St. Nicholas Church itself: as a child in the 1780s, he studied for a time at an academy in Nile Street (in what is now The Lanes in the city centre) run by Rev. Wagner's grandfather Rev. Henry Michell; he attended St. Nicholas Church, which at the time was under the curacy of Rev. Michell, to worship; and his sons were taught by Rev. Wagner himself for eight years from 1818.
Rev. Wagner therefore announced that he would start a fund to pay for the rebuilding of the church as a memorial to the Duke, and donated the first £1,000. Nearly £5,000 more was subsequently raised from public subscriptions and donations.
The architect
Richard Cromwell Carpenter
Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic revival, Gothic style.
Family
Carpenter was born on 21 ...
, associated with the architectural aspects of the
Cambridge Movement and
Tractarianism, was chosen to rebuild St Nicholas Church, after authorisation was granted on 15 April 1853 for demolition and reconstruction.
The project was completed quite rapidly, given the size of the building, by Carpenter and the appointed building firm (Bushby's of
Littlehampton): the church was reopened on 8 April 1854, about nine months after work started.
Work included a new roof; a doubling of the width of the original aisles, and extensions to some of them; a reduction in the size of the chantry; the creation of an organ-chamber and a new east window; the removal of all galleries and original box-pews; and the moving of the font to a position near the south door, which it occupied until the latest move in 2001.
A stone cross was installed to commemorate the Duke of Wellington. Carpenter himself died only a year after the project was completed, and a memorial plaque - now lost - was installed in recognition of his life and works. The reconstruction, which cost £5,769, reduced the capacity of the church by approximately 30% to around 900 because the galleries were removed.
Subsequent work
Much work was carried out over the next fifty years, mostly in the form of additions to or replacements of existing fixtures; nevertheless, many of the original mediaeval features of the church were either lost or had their impact reduced.
Somers Clarke, the clerk of the administrative vestry for 62 years from 1830, donated a new
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, access ...
to the church in 1867, after the original three-deck structure was removed by Carpenter and replaced with a much smaller wooden example. Clarke's pulpit was made of iron.
A new organ, costing £500, was installed in 1872, and a new vestry was built between 1876 and 1877 to the north of the chancel.
Between 1878 and 1887, a number of
stained glass windows were designed and installed. The noted designer
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, lich ...
, a cousin of
Thomas Read Kemp, the developer of Brighton's
Kemp Town estate, was responsible for many of these; another was donated by Somers Clarke in memory of Rev. Wagner, who had died in 1870. Also during this period, the east window installed by Carpenter was replaced with a
Perpendicular-style window. The original window was taken to the relatively new
Church of the Annunciation in the
Hanover area of the town.
A significant alteration was made in 1892, when the whole roof was removed and lifted mechanically in order to create more space internally. The gap was filled with a series of
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper ...
windows, and various paintings and murals were added to the new internal space painted by Charles Eamer Kempe.
The 15th-century chantry chapel underwent another change in 1900. Having been reduced in size in the 1853 redevelopment, it was enlarged again, before being converted into a
Lady chapel in 1909.
Bells
The first peal of bells, ten in total, was presented to the church in 1777 by
Thomas Rudhall, a member of one of the most prominent families in the city of
Gloucester's 700-year bell-founding history. They were installed in the tower at the west end of the church. Two were given to
St. Peter's Church upon its completion in 1828, but a bequest from a former warden of the church in 1892 funded the purchase of two more to replace these. The whole peal was then replaced in 1922 by a new ring of ten bells by Gillett and Johnson.
It became traditional for the bells to be rung when important visitors, especially monarchs or other members of the Royal Family, came to the town; a series of tablets preserved at the base of the ringing chamber give details of each "special occasion" on which the bells were rung for an extended period, such as
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
's
Golden Jubilee
A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali ''"সু ...
in 1887.
More recently, the bells were rung half-muffled for the funeral of
Henry Allingham on 30 July 2009.
Churchyard
St Nicholas Church is surrounded by a
graveyard with many old tombs. It has not accepted any new burials for many years, and was landscaped by the council in the mid-20th century, although most of the tombs of significant historical interest were left undisturbed
and all of those monuments listed below have Grade II status.
The oldest memorial is that of Captain Nicholas Tattersell. He took
King Charles II from
Shoreham harbour Shoreham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Shoreham, Victoria
United Kingdom
* Shoreham, Kent
** Shoreham railway station
* Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex
** Shoreham (UK Parliament constituency) 1974-1997
** New Shoreham (UK Parliament constit ...
to France in 1651 in ''Surprise'', a coal ship he captained. See
here for full details of the King's escape from the
Battle of Worcester and his passage to Fécamp in Normandy. Upon King Charles's return to Britain in 1660, he granted Tattersell a pension of £100 per year, and ''Surprise'' was transferred into the Royal Navy's fleet and renamed ''The Royal Escape''.
John Weiss of
John Weiss & Son, the eminent surgical instrument makers, was entombed here in 1843. Weiss had an abiding fear of being buried alive and to ensure his death he devised a metal spike which would penetrate his heart when the lid was lowered on his coffin.
Phoebe Hessel, a famous 18th- and 19th-century resident of Brighton, is buried close by. She fell in love with a soldier, William Golding, at the age of 15, and disguised herself as a man to enlist alongside him in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
after he was sent overseas. The concealment of her sex was so effective that she served for 17 years until voluntarily revealing the truth to her
commanding officer
The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latit ...
's wife and being discharged; even after suffering a wounded arm at the
Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, she was not discovered during her treatment. She became a well-known figure after moving to Brighton following the death of Golding in the 1760s, and lived to the age of 108—being granted a special pension by the Prince Regent, and travelling in the procession during his coronation as King George IV.
Martha Gunn
Martha Gunn (1726–1815) was possibly the most famous of the "dippers", certainly the most famous in Brighton. She lived at 36 East Street, Brighton, in a house that still stands. Her grave stone stands in St Nicholas' churchyard in Brighton ...
, one of the town's best-known residents in the 18th and 19th centuries, is also buried in the churchyard. She was the most famous of Brighton's
dippers, who helped non-swimmers bathe in the sea (using horse-drawn bathing machines) in the decades after Dr. Richard Russell's advice became popular. Dippers had to be of the same sex as their client (or "bathee"), and Martha Gunn was well regarded for many years by locals and visitors, with her size and strength being a particular advantage in this difficult physical task.
Anna Maria Crouch, a noted singer and actress contemporary with Hessel and Gunn, is commemorated by an impressive stone urn. For much of her career, she was associated with the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto ...
, London, taking both singing and speaking parts in various plays. However, her romantic life was also noteworthy: she married a Royal Navy lieutenant in 1785 after a brief
elopement in Ireland the previous year, but took an Irish actor and operatic singer,
Michael Kelly, as a lover shortly afterwards. Husband, wife and lover lived together for a time in a
ménage à trois, but Anna Maria Crouch also had a relationship with the Prince Regent; and when she later moved to London with Kelly, the Prince was a frequent visitor to their house.
She died in 1805, at the age of 42.
Other people important in the history of Brighton to be buried in the churchyard include
Sake Dean Mahomet
Sake Dean Mahomed (1759–1851) was an Bengali traveller, surgeon, entrepreneur, and one of the most notable early non-European immigrants to the Western World. Due to non-standard transliteration, his name is often spelled in various ways. H ...
—an Indian man who introduced the
Indian curry house restaurant to Great Britain as well as establishing "
shampooing" baths in the country, and was appointed shampooing surgeon to both King
George IV and
William IV and
Amon Wilds, one of the most important architects of the
Regency era, who provided Brighton with much
Regency architecture.
Meanwhile, the actress
Dame Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson (28 March 19027 July 1984) was an English actress and star of the theatrical stage and cinema, particularly renowned for her performances in plays demanding dramatic and emotional intensity. Her range extended from q ...
, noted for a long career on stage, television and film, is commemorated with a memorial stone in the churchyard. She lived in a house in
Wykeham Terrace, a short distance from the church, for some years until her death in 1984.
The first extension to the churchyard was built in 1824, across Church Street to the north. This has been converted into a playground. Another modest extension was made in 1831, but the most significant change came in 1841 when land to the west of what is now Dyke Road (then named Church Hill) was acquired and used to form a much larger burial ground.
This western extension was laid out by
Regency architect Amon Henry Wilds and contains a series of
burial vaults with Grade II listed status.
The church today
St Nicholas' Church was
listed at Grade II* on 13 October 1952.
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 and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages.
Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton an ...
.
Having been Brighton's parish church for several centuries, St Nicholas Church lost this status in 1873 when the
Bishop of Chichester
The Bishop of Chichester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of East and West Sussex. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's s ...
reorganised the entire structure of Brighton's parishes.
St Peter's Church had been constructed in 1828 as a
chapel of ease associated with St Nicholas Church; in 1873, the two were separated and each allocated their own parish, and St Peter's became Brighton's parish church—perhaps because of its more central location (following the development of the town around it).
St Nicholas Church is still widely known as "The Mother Church of Brighton", though.
Sunday services are held at 8.00am and 10.30am, and 20-minute morning and evening prayer sessions are held on every other day of the week. Other activities include a
Sunday school
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West.
S ...
, a youth group and regular live music.
Photo gallery
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 01.JPG, View of St Nicholas Church from the graveyard
Image:St Nicholas Church Plaque.JPG, Plaque on the east wall of the church
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 06.JPG, The tower, incorporating stones and blocks of Norman origin
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 05.JPG, A closer look at the tower
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 08.JPG, View of the northern and western sides
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 04.JPG, The south doorway
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 03.JPG, The south side of the church, showing the clerestory windows dating from 1892
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 02.JPG, The Perpendicular east window
Image:Font at St Nicholas church, Brighton.JPG, The font
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 07.JPG, View of the tower from the northwestern side
Image:Phoebe Hessel's Gravestone.JPG, Phoebe Hessel's tombstone
Image:Martha Gunn's Gravestone.JPG, Martha Gunn's tombstone
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 09.JPG, View across the original churchyard
Image:St Nicholas Church, Brighton 10.JPG, The 1841 burial ground
See also
*
Cemeteries and crematoria in Brighton and Hove
*
List of places of worship in Brighton and Hove
The city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England, has more than 100 extant churches and other places of worship, which serve a variety of Christian denominations and other religions. More than 50 former religious buildings, althou ...
*
List of works by R. C. Carpenter
Richard Cromwell Carpenter, R. C. Carpenter (1812–1855) was an English people, English architect whose output consisted mainly of churches in Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival style. He was born in Clerkenwell, London, and was educat ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
External links
Brighton Mortiquarian - Gazetteer of St Nicholas Burial GroundChurch websiteDiocese of Chichester directory of churches: entry for St NicholasA Church Near You - entry for St NicholasRegency Square Area Society - entry for St NicholasMy Brighton and Hove - St Nicholas main page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brighton, Saint Nicholas
14th-century church buildings in England
Church of England church buildings in Brighton and Hove
Grade II* listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
Grade II* listed churches in East Sussex
Anglo-Catholic church buildings in East Sussex