St. Peter's Church is a former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church in The Grove, on the

Isle of Portland The Isle of Portland is a tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. The southern tip, Portland Bill, lies south of the resort of Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A barrier ...

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 ...

. Designed by Major-General

Sir Edmund Du Cane Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane (23 March 1830 – 7 June 1903) was an English major-general of the Royal Engineers and prison administrator. Early life Born at Colchester, Essex on 23 March 1830, he was youngest child in a family of four sons and ...

, the church was built in 1870-72 and is now a Grade II* Listed building. The gate piers and boundary walls to the north and west of the church are also Grade II Listed, along with the church's vicarage. St. Peter's Church is included on

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 ...

's "

Heritage at Risk An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

" register.

History

St Peter's Church was built between 1870 and 1872, for a cost of £8,000 and using convict labour from the adjacent

HM Prison Portland HM Prison Portland is a male Adult/Young Offenders Institution in the village of The Grove on the Isle of Portland, in Dorset, England. It is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. The prison was originally opened in 1848 as an adult convic ...

. It was consecrated in August 1872 and used by residents of the Grove and the military garrison stationed at the

Verne Citadel Verne Citadel is a 19th-century citadel on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. Located on the highest point of Portland, Verne Hill, it sits in a commanding position overlooking Portland Harbour, which it was built to defend. In 1949, it beca ...

. St Peter's became redundant in 1973, but was retained as a chapel for the prison, then a Borstal Institution, until 1988. The church is now in private ownership.

Design

The church is built of

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

and has slate roofs. The church, featuring ornate architecture, still maintains many of its original features and is set in walled gardens with mature trees. The stained glass inside dates from the 20th century. During World War II, one of the church's windows suffered bomb damage and was replaced with one dedicated to the memory of Bandmaster J. Tyson and men of the Dorset Regiment killed in action. Within the church is a mosaic, bordering around the porch and chancel, which was the work of female convicts, including

Constance Kent Constance Emily Kent (1844–1944) was an English woman who confessed to the murder of her half-brother, Francis Saville Kent, in 1860, when she was aged 16 and he aged three. The case led to high-level pronouncements that there was no longer a ...

, who was serving a life sentence in

HM Prison Parkhurst HM Prison Parkhurst is a Prison security categories in the United Kingdom, Category B men's prison located in Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, and is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. Parkhurst prison is one of t ...

. In the 1972 book ''The Buildings of England'', authors Newman and Pevsner stated "St Peter is in its own way as surprising and as bold in scale as St George's Church, Reforne, Easton."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portland, Saint Peters Church

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

Church of England church buildings in Dorset Grade II* listed churches in Dorset 1872 establishments in England Redundant churches Former Church of England church buildings