St Paul's Church, Scotforth
Encyclopedia
St Paul's Church, Scotforth, is in Scotforth
, a suburb of Lancaster
, Lancashire
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
as a Grade II listed building. It is an active Anglican
parish church
in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and Morecambe, and the diocese of Blackburn
. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
described it as a "strange building" and "an anachronism, almost beyond belief".
, an architect who established a practice in Lancaster in 1835. In 1838 E. G. Paley
joined him as a pupil. In 1845 he became a partner and Sharpe retired from the practice in 1851. He then pursued a career in railway engineering. In 1874, when he was aged 68, he returned to architecture and designed this church which was opened in 1876. Sharpe lived in a house within 300 yards (274 m) of the church. The foundation stone was laid on 11 August 1874. The church was almost finished by the end of 1875, and it was consecrated
on 18 February 1876 by Rt Revd James Fraser
, Bishop of Manchester
. In 1890–91 the west end of the church was extended, and transept
s were added by Paley, Austin and Paley, the successors in Sharpe's former practice.
style. Pevsner points out that while this style (which he calls Neo-Norman) was fashionable in the 1840s, it was out of fashion in the 1870s, when the usual style was Gothic Revival
. Sharpe himself argued that the style was late Transitional of about 1170.
The church is built in brick, faced on the outside with local gritstone
, and with yellow terracotta dressings. Its plan consists of a five-bay
nave
with aisle
s, a clerestory
and transepts at the western end. The chancel
has one bay, over which is the tower. To the east of the chancel is an apsidal
sanctuary and to the north is a vestry
. The west façade has two lancet window
s with a round window above. The bays are separated by buttress
es, each bay containing two round-arched windows in the aisles and two round windows in the clerestory. The tower has two round-headed windows on the north and south sides in the lower stage. Above this is a tall bell chamber with two large arched openings on each face. The roof is hipped
with steep gable
s on the east and west faces, each containing a vesica piscis
opening. It is covered in lead. The apse has a half-conical roof; it is divided into three bays by buttresses, each bay containing a round-headed window.
consist of round column
s with square capitals
carrying round arches. They are clad with terracotta. The chancel has a quadripartite rib vault
ed ceiling and blank arcading on the north and south walls. The ceiling of the apse is painted. The pews stretch between the arcades with no central aisle. The font
is large and made from pink marble
. The stained glass at the west end dates from about 1897, depicts the Works of Mercy
, and is by Barrowclough & Sanders. Two windows in the south aisle date from the 1920s and are probably by Shrigley & Hunt
. In the chancel are memorial brasses
to Edmund Sharpe and to his wife.
Scotforth
Scotforth is a civil parish and a suburb in the south of the city of City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. It is home to Scotforth St Paul's Church of England Primary School and St Paul's Church. The parish had a population of 239 recorded in the 2001 census.Parts of Lancaster were made up of...
, a suburb of Lancaster
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, England. It has been designated by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a Grade II listed building. It is an active Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and Morecambe, and the diocese of Blackburn
Diocese of Blackburn
The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created in 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The Diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, and the cities of Lancaster, and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley...
. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
described it as a "strange building" and "an anachronism, almost beyond belief".
History
St Paul's was designed by Edmund SharpeEdmund Sharpe
Edmund Sharpe was an English architect and engineer. He started his career as an architect, initially on his own, then in partnership with Edward Paley, designing mainly churches but also some secular buildings...
, an architect who established a practice in Lancaster in 1835. In 1838 E. G. Paley
Edward Graham Paley
Edward Graham Paley, usually known as E. G. Paley, , was an English architect who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, in the second half of the 19th century.-Education and career:...
joined him as a pupil. In 1845 he became a partner and Sharpe retired from the practice in 1851. He then pursued a career in railway engineering. In 1874, when he was aged 68, he returned to architecture and designed this church which was opened in 1876. Sharpe lived in a house within 300 yards (274 m) of the church. The foundation stone was laid on 11 August 1874. The church was almost finished by the end of 1875, and it was consecrated
Consecration
Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service, usually religious. The word "consecration" literally means "to associate with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups...
on 18 February 1876 by Rt Revd James Fraser
James Fraser (bishop)
James Fraser was a reforming Anglican bishop of Manchester, England. An able Church administrator and policy leader, he was active in developing the Church's approach to education and in practical politics and industrial relations...
, Bishop of Manchester
Bishop of Manchester
The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.The current bishop is the Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, the 11th Lord Bishop of Manchester, who signs Nigel Manchester. The bishop's official residence is Bishopscourt, Bury New Road,...
. In 1890–91 the west end of the church was extended, and transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
s were added by Paley, Austin and Paley, the successors in Sharpe's former practice.
Exterior
The church is in RomanesqueRomanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
style. Pevsner points out that while this style (which he calls Neo-Norman) was fashionable in the 1840s, it was out of fashion in the 1870s, when the usual style was Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. Sharpe himself argued that the style was late Transitional of about 1170.
The church is built in brick, faced on the outside with local gritstone
Gritstone
Gritstone or Grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for paper and for grindstones to sharpen blades. "Grit" is...
, and with yellow terracotta dressings. Its plan consists of a five-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
with aisle
Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other...
s, a clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
and transepts at the western end. The chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
has one bay, over which is the tower. To the east of the chancel is an apsidal
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
sanctuary and to the north is a vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
. The west façade has two lancet window
Lancet window
A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.The motif first...
s with a round window above. The bays are separated by buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es, each bay containing two round-arched windows in the aisles and two round windows in the clerestory. The tower has two round-headed windows on the north and south sides in the lower stage. Above this is a tall bell chamber with two large arched openings on each face. The roof is hipped
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
with steep gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s on the east and west faces, each containing a vesica piscis
Vesica piscis
The vesica piscis is a shape that is the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other. The name literally means the "bladder of a fish" in Latin...
opening. It is covered in lead. The apse has a half-conical roof; it is divided into three bays by buttresses, each bay containing a round-headed window.
Interior
The arcadesArcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
consist of round column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s with square capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
carrying round arches. They are clad with terracotta. The chancel has a quadripartite rib vault
Rib vault
The intersection of two or three barrel vaults produces a rib vault or ribbed vault when they are edged with an armature of piped masonry often carved in decorative patterns; compare groin vault, an older form of vault construction...
ed ceiling and blank arcading on the north and south walls. The ceiling of the apse is painted. The pews stretch between the arcades with no central aisle. The font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
is large and made from pink marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
. The stained glass at the west end dates from about 1897, depicts the Works of Mercy
Works of Mercy
The Works of Mercy or Acts of Mercy are actions and practices which Christianity in general, and the Methodist Church, Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church in particular, consider expectations to be fulfilled by believers, and are a means of grace, which aid in sanctification.The...
, and is by Barrowclough & Sanders. Two windows in the south aisle date from the 1920s and are probably by Shrigley & Hunt
Shrigley and Hunt
Shrigley and Hunt was the name of an English firm which produced stained glass windows and art tiles.The business began in the 1750s when Shrigley's was a painting, carving and gilding firm in Lancaster, Lancashire....
. In the chancel are memorial brasses
Monumental brass
Monumental brass is a species of engraved sepulchral memorial which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood...
to Edmund Sharpe and to his wife.
See also
- List of architectural works by Edmund Sharpe
- List of works by Paley, Austin and Paley