Brighton: St Wilfrid
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 324 52
The style is dictated by the practical considerations. If the openings in walls are studied it will be seen that there are three categories: the smallest (such as little windows to vestries) are simple rectangular openings. The middle sized openings (the windows of the tower, the bell-openings in the tower and the windows of the north transept or the arches of the passage aisles) are provided with segmental arches of brick. Finally the largest openings, all linking one internal space with another, (such as the openings under the tower to the nave, sanctuary and chapels) are rectangular but, instead of brick, are of reinforced concrete. There is no stonework in the building at all and thus, while the consistent use of brick may be traditional, the use of concrete lintels when necessary was strikingly contemporary
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Nave of four bays with passage aisles north and south and a shallow projection at the west end for the organ gallery with baptistery below. The south aisle continues into a small chapel and the chancel rises into a tower over the "crossing" with a shallow sanctuary beyond. There is a north transept opening on the east into a chapel roughly twice the size of that on the south. Along the north side of the building are single storeyed vestries. (The church is not traditionally orientated, with the altar situated at the north, but liturgical directions are used throughout this entry).
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was designed by H.S. Goodhart Rendel in 1932. It was the first church to be built by the Sussex Church Builders and was conceived as a memorial to Bishop Winfrid Burrows whose daughter, Mary Moore, laid the foundation stone on 3 December 1932. The consecration was on 25 November 1933.
Exterior Description
The walls are faced within and without with local Keymer kiln stock bricks, the structural bricks being Warnham Common pressed bricks. Concrete is also used for the larger units of the structure, either concrete-cased structural steel or re-inforced concrete as function demanded. The roof coverings are of pantiles on battens nailed to patent fixing blocks in the concrete.
The style is dictated by the practical considerations. If the openings in walls are studied it will be seen that there are three categories: the smallest (such as little windows to vestries) are simple rectangular openings. The middle sized openings (the windows of the tower, the bell-openings in the tower and the windows of the north transept or the arches of the passage aisles) are provided with segmental arches of brick. Finally the largest openings, all linking one internal space with another, (such as the openings under the tower to the nave, sanctuary and chapels) are rectangular but, instead of brick, are of re-inforced concrete. There is no stonework in the building at all and thus, while the consistent use of brick may be traditional, the use of concrete lintels when necessary was strikingly contemporary.
The west wall is blind save for one segmental-headed window placed high in the gable. The gable itself is canted although at the foot this merges with a porch in line with the straight central section. The single window is recessed within three receding rectangles. The boundary wall of cheap concrete units detracts from the bulk of the church which rises above it. To the north and south aisles do not start in the west bay, but in the remaining three bays of the nave they are provided, very narrow and under a roof at steeper pitch than the main nave roof. The buttresses which divide the bays rise through this roof and are then capped with pantiles at the same pitch as the main nave roof. Each bay of the aisles has a large segmental-headed window, taller than that in the west nave wall but otherwise similar. Below are the sacristies under a flat roof and with a run of small rectangular windows set in alternating groups of two and three under a simple cornice of projecting bricks. The aisles also have such a cornice but of slightly differing pattern. At the west end is a low projection under a cross-gable which houses a staircase from the sacristies to the organ gallery and in the triangular space between this and the road is a choir vestry with windows like those of the sacristies; below this is the electrical switch room. In the end gable of this projection is a doorway and a small rectangular window, the gable projected sideways to the east under a short parapet in order to accommodate the window rather as Butterfield might have done.
Moving eastwards again, the eastern bay of the nave is reached. This has transepts to north and south, the latter about half the depth of the former owing to the limitations of the site. Both are roofed, not with a cross gable as the Gothic Revivalists would have done it, but with a continuation of the roof slope of the nave which is high enough from the ground and of shallow enough pitch to cover the whole of the relatively deep north transept without coning lower than the level of the eaves of the aisles. This transept has a blind north wall and a window facing west of the same design as the aisle windows but of slightly differing proportions. The south transopt is completely blind and in the corner between this and the aisle is a small projection housing the staircase to the upper levels of the structure.
Thus gradually the masses of the building become more complex and larger as the climax is reached over the chancel in the form of a substantial but not specially lofty tower. This is cross gabled, with a gable of the same low pitch as the roof over the body of the nave, and has paired arched openings to the north and south arranged in two storeys. The lower, which are much the tallest and largest arches in the building, are glazed and light the sanctuary; they are flanked by pilaster buttresses. The upper openings, by contrast, are quite short (a typical Goodhart Rendel reversal of the proportions which would be found in a mediaeval tower), and also are flanked by pilaster buttresses. In the wall at the upper level is a cross made of dark blue Sussex tiles with gold mosaic in the joints to catch the light. This motif of recessed squares will be more prominant inside the church. The upper part of the tower narrows slightly in two stages, reminiscent in this but certainly in no other way, of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's tower for Liverpool Cathedral.
Interior
Interior Description
The interior is not in fact particularly large, but the different floor levels, the arches pierced through the nave pillars and the careful placing of windows combine to create a building of great variety and dignity with a character which changes markedly when seen from different angles. The section of the building is a great dodecahedron. The upper five sides are represented by the five planes of the concrete roof, all decorated with oblong recessed panels, and the sixth and seventh sides are the upper parts of the walls. The eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh are not represented, but the twelfth is the width of the central alley of the nave floor.
The bays of the nave are separated by internal buttresses, in the form of slabs of brickwork pierced at the foot by segmental arches of a now familiar pattern to form passage aisles for processions. The brickwork eventually disappears through the concrete vault and rises outside the shell of the building for a little way. Both the buttresses and the arches have recessed corners, yet another example of the careful brickwork which distinguishes the church. Between each pair of buttresses is a concrete arch of three planes which emphasises the shape of the roof, again decorated with recessed square panels. At the west end the floor is four steps higher and a low brick wall with wooden capping sets this part aside as an entrance area with a baptistery further west under the organ gallery lit by a pair of windows in the west wall. The gallery is quite plain, supported on a reinforced concrete lintel with two concrete brackets below. At each end of the baptistery is a blind arch and the entrance porch is fitted in on the north-west side. The outer doors are of teak and the inner of Australian walnut, with glazed roundels above.
The remaining three bays of the nave are uniform on the north side, with a big window in each above a blind area of walling, but the south side has several variations. In the western bay is a small recess for no apparent purpose. The next bay also has a small recess and beside it a doorway leading to a staircase which gives access to the tower. This is achieved by a spiral stair leading to a gallery with an iron railing crossing the next bay at first floor level and passing through the next wall to a turret outside the east wall of the transept. Here it rises as high as it can against the tower until the transept roof line cuts it off and a doorway opons into a further iron gallery high on the inside face of the west tower wall. In the centre of this wall again there is a staircase until at last a trap-door opens into the floor of the bell chamber.
On the north side what appeared externally as a transept internally serves the double purpose of a lobby within the north door and an ante chamber both to the sacristy and the north chapel. The chapel, which is a rectangle with a smaller rectangle to the east for a sanctuary, has a flat concrete ceiling again with a pattern of recessed squares. The little chapel on the south side is similar, though half the size and very dark through having no external windows. Both chapels open to the tower space through relatively low but wide openings spanned by concrete girlers, the soffits of which together with the responds also have recessed squares, and the sanctuaries of each are plastered, the only use of this in the main parts of the building.
Finally, the chancel internally, just as the tower above is externally, is the centrepiece of the building. By comparison with the nave, it is dramatically flooded with light from the large windows high in the side walls. There was intended, however, to be a ciborium or baldachino over the altar with tall thin pillars at each corner and a saucer dome shaped like a sail filled with wind and tied down at the corners to the pillars. This however has never been achieved. The horizontal joints of brickwork on the east wall, moreover, were intended to be filled with gold. Tall openings from the tower east and west are of the same design as those to the chapels just mentioned, but more than twice the height, and the only other architectural detail is the provision of a low brick segmental arch on the south side of the sanctuary to take the wooden sedilia. The sanctuary floor is paved with York stone slabs, while the nave floor is of Karri wood blocks laid in herring-bone pattern.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
20th Century
The high altar is of stone and is later than the building although it appears to conform with Goodhart Rendel's intentions and was probably designed by him.
Altar
20th Century
The altar in the south chapel has a plain panelled front and is of Australian silky oak treated with ordinary washing soda, designed by the architect.
Altar
20th Century
The altar in the north chapel has a plain panelled front and is of Australian silky oak treated with ordinary washing soda, designed by the architect.
Lectern
The lectern is not by the architect ; it is an oak pedestal.
Font (object)
c.1870-80
The font came from another church; it dates from c. 1870-80 and has a circular tapering bowl on four short colonettes, the bowl with circular recessed panels with reliefs of the symbols of the Evangelists.
Rail
20th Century
The communion rails, like the pulpit and altars, are designed by the architect but were probably not intended to be permanent; a single rail reaches right across the church from the north end of the north chapel across the sanctuary (with four right-angle bends) and thence across the south chapel. It is also of Australian silky oak and has wooden sliding bolts to secure the gates.
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 324 52
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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