All Saints Hove facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids All Saints Hove
The church from the southwest
50°49′49″N 0°10′03″W / 50.8303°N 0.1674°W / 50.8303; -0.1674
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Inclusive Catholic
Website	https://allsaintshove.org
History
Dedication	All Saints
Administration
Parish	Hove, All Saints
Deanery	Rural Deanery of Hove
Archdeaconry	Brighton and Lewes
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury

All Saints Hove is a beautiful Anglican church located in Hove, which is part of the city of Brighton and Hove in England. It has been the main parish church for all of Hove since 1892. You can find it in a very noticeable spot at a big crossroads in the middle of Hove.

Building a Grand Church in Hove
- Starting Construction and Opening Stages
- All Saints Becomes the Main Parish Church
Amazing Architecture and Design
All Saints Hove Today
The Vicar's Home
Gallery
See also

Building a Grand Church in Hove

For a long time, the areas of Hove and Preston were joined together as one church area called Hove-cum-Preston. The old St Andrew's Church served as the main church. It was very old, dating back to Saxon times, but it was rebuilt in 1836 because more people were moving to the area.

In 1879, Hove and Preston became separate church areas. St Andrew's Church became the parish church for Hove. However, when Reverend Thomas Peacey became the first vicar of Hove that same year, he wanted a new, more impressive church. He chose a famous church architect named John Loughborough Pearson to design it.

Starting Construction and Opening Stages

Building the new church didn't start right away. John Loughborough Pearson was busy with other projects, including the vicarage (the house for the vicar) on the same land and the nearby St Barnabas Church.

The first stone for All Saints Hove was laid on April 25, 1889. The church was built and opened in different stages. The main part of the church, called the nave and side aisles, cost £14,000. This section opened in 1891 after a special ceremony by the Bishop of Chichester on May 1, 1891. The Bishop, Richard Durnford, even gave £1,000 towards the cost!

The eastern part of the church wasn't finished until 1901, four years after Pearson passed away. His son oversaw its completion. The new Bishop of Chichester, Ernest Roland Wilberforce, officially opened it on November 1, 1901. A tower on the southwest side and an entrance area (called a narthex) were added in 1924. The tower was never fully completed, but inside it, you can see a statue of Reverend Peacey holding a model of the church. By this time, about £40,000 had been spent on building the church.

All Saints Becomes the Main Parish Church

All Saints Church became the main parish church for Hove in 1892, taking over from St Andrew's. It also serves a smaller area called the Parish of Hove All Saints. This area used to include the church of St Thomas the Apostle, which is now the Coptic Orthodox church of St Mary and St Abraam. The parish of Hove All Saints is quite large and has many people living in it, making it one of the busiest parishes in the Chichester area.

Amazing Architecture and Design

All Saints is a very grand church. It's one of the biggest churches built in the 1800s in the Gothic revival style. It looks a bit like Truro Cathedral, another large church designed by John Loughborough Pearson.

Building Materials and Style

Pearson used local sandstone for the outside of All Saints. This is different from his other church in Hove, St Barnabas, which uses flint and red brick. The main style of All Saints is called Early English Decorated style, which is also different from most of his other big churches, especially those in London.

The inside of the church is also made of stone, which was usually only found in the grandest medieval buildings. The huge roof is made from strong Sussex oak wood.

Inside the Church: Details and Art

When you enter through the narthex (the entrance area) at the west end, you'll find a very wide main area called the nave. It has tall arches on both sides, which some people compare to those in Exeter Cathedral. There's also a chancel (the area around the altar) with side chapels.

One of these chapels has a beautifully carved wooden screen with a canopy. This screen was made to remember the people from the parish who died in the First World War. The church is dominated by a large stone screen behind the altar, called a reredos, which was carved by Nathaniel Hitch and put in place in 1908. The architect, John Loughborough Pearson, designed the church in a clever way to make your eyes focus on this reredos. Another architect, Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel, said the east end of the church was "as nearly perfect as can be." Nikolaus Pevsner, a famous expert on buildings, called the church "superb and cathedral-like."

Other interesting features inside include:

Oak choir stalls and canopies designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson (John Loughborough Pearson's son) to remember Thomas Peacey.
A stone pulpit (where sermons are given).
A seven-sided font made of red marble.

Stained Glass and the Grand Organ

The church has many beautiful stained glass windows made by the famous company Clayton & Bell. The large west window remembers King Edward VII, who attended a service at the church in 1896 before he became king.

The church also has a magnificent organ, built by William Hill & Son, London. It was first installed in 1894 with 14 organ stops (sets of pipes). In 1905, it was made much larger, with 48 speaking stops, including a very rare full-length 32-foot Open Wood stop. This is the only one of its kind between London and Winchester! In 1915, the organ was placed inside a grand double-fronted wooden case designed by Frank Loughborough Pearson. The organ was carefully repaired in 1987 and is considered so important that it received a special certificate from the British Institute of Organ Studies. Its restoration has even helped guide the repair of other large organs in places like Peterborough and Lichfield cathedrals.

All Saints Hove Today

All Saints Church is open regularly for visitors to explore. It's also a popular place for live music concerts. Of course, it holds church services several days a week. For families, there are Sunday school and crèche facilities available.

The church's amazing architecture is highly valued. It has been given Grade I listed status, which means it's recognized as a "building of outstanding or national architectural or historic interest."

The Vicar's Home

The last vicar of the combined Hove-cum-Preston parish, Reverend Walter Kelly, had built a vicarage (the vicar's house). But after the split, this house ended up in the Preston parish. Reverend Peacey quickly worked to get Hove its own vicarage. He got land from the Stanford family, who owned a lot of land around Preston and Hove.

The Stanfords had acquired much of this land in the 1700s. By the late 1800s, a lot of it was being used to build homes. A plot of land in an area then known as "West Brighton," at the corner of what became Eaton Road and The Drive, was chosen. John Loughborough Pearson was asked to design and build a vicarage that would match the church, even though its design was created several years before the church itself. This red-brick building, built in 1883, has features of the Renaissance style from 400 years earlier and is listed as Grade II.

Gallery

The west side, showing the entrance, west window, and the tower that was never finished
The south side, looking towards the northeast
The main altar, reredos, and part of the east window
The main altar and reredos, seen from the south choir stalls
The main part of the church (nave), looking east
The grand double-fronted organ case and the north transept window
The front of the pipe organ in the chancel
View of the east end, including the chapel and east window
A small spire on the eastern end
The west window, which remembers King Edward VII
The west window, seen from inside the church
One of the beautiful stained glass windows on the south side
The south window, seen from inside
The north window of the entrance area, designed by Martin Travers