St Mary's Church, Portsea facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Portsea |
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The tower, south porch and nave
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| Location | Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Churchmanship | Anglo-Catholic |
| History | |
| Status | Active |
| Founded | c. 1164 |
| Dedication | Mary, Mother of Jesus |
| Consecrated | 10 October 1889 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Parish church |
| Heritage designation | Grade II* |
| Designated | 10 January 1953 |
| Architect(s) | Sir Arthur Blomfield |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Years built | 1887-1889 |
| Construction cost | £40,000 (1889) |
| Specifications | |
| Length | 210 feet (64 metres) |
| Tower height | 167 feet (51 metres) |
| Materials | Flint |
| Bells | 8 |
| Tenor bell weight | 17 long cwt 0 qr 7 lb (1,911 lb or 867 kg) |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Portsea |
| Deanery | Portsmouth |
| Archdeaconry | Portsdown |
| Diocese | Portsmouth |
| Province | Canterbury |
St Mary's Church is a very important Church of England parish church in Portsmouth, Hampshire. It serves the areas of Portsea and Fratton. This church stands on the oldest church site on Portsea Island. It is one of the largest parish churches in the country. Many people call it the "finest Victorian building in Hampshire".
This is at least the third church built on this spot. It is a Grade II* listed building, which means it's a very special historic place. Famous people like Charles Dickens, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and Cosmo Lang used to worship here.
Contents
History of St Mary's Church
The First Church: How It Began
Even though Portsmouth was officially founded in 1181, there was a church here much earlier. In 1164, a local lord named Baldwin de Portsea gave the church of St. Mary to a group of priests. This shows a church was already standing on this site. The Domesday Book also recorded families living in the area around that time.
We don't know much about this first church. We do know that a tower was added during Tudor times. The roof was low and had special windows called dormer windows. For many years, St Mary's Church was surrounded by farms and open fields. But in the 1800s, the dockyard and the city's population grew a lot. More space was needed for worshippers. A gallery was built inside the church to fit more people. Eventually, it was decided that a completely new church was needed.
The Second Church: A Short Life
A new church was built in 1843. It cost about £5,000, which would be around £302,000 today. The architect, Thomas Ellis Owen, designed it in the Early English Gothic style. It even used the old Tudor tower from the first church.
However, this church did not last long. It was not very bright inside and didn't have good air flow. It was also smaller than the newly built Roman Catholic cathedral. So, it was pulled down in 1887, less than 50 years after it was built.
The Present Church: A Grand Design
After the second church was demolished, a temporary church made of iron was put up. The vicar, Canon Edgar Jacob, wanted to raise £15,000 for a new church. This was three times the cost of the 1843 church. Then, an anonymous person from Portsmouth offered to double whatever the church raised!
This amazing offer led to bigger plans. Sir Arthur Blomfield, a famous architect, was hired to design the new building. Canon Jacob wanted the church to inspire the city. Blomfield aimed for it to be the "chief parish church of a great town".
The foundation stone was laid on August 9, 1887, by Victoria, Princess Royal. You can still see a plaque near the entrance marking this event. In 1891, it was discovered that the anonymous donor was W. H. Smith. He was a very important person in the government. By the time he died, he had given £28,000 to build the church.
Construction finished in 1889. The church was officially opened on October 20, 1889. The total cost was £44,000, which is over £3,600,000 in today's money. The new church was much larger than the previous ones. The entire old church could fit inside its walls!
In 1894, someone broke into the church and tried to set it on fire. Luckily, the fire burned out before causing major damage.
St Mary's During Wartime
In 1927, the Diocese of Portsmouth was created. There were talks about which church would become the main cathedral. St Mary's was considered, but it was decided that it was too busy helping other smaller churches. So, the Church of St Thomas became the cathedral. St Thomas' Church had to be doubled in size to become as big as St Mary's.
St Mary's Church stayed mostly the same until World War II. During the Portsmouth Blitz, two bombs fell very close to the church on August 24, 1940. The church itself was not hit, but the shockwave from the bombs shattered most of the glass in the large east window.
After the war, services started again. The east window was not fixed right away. Wooden panels covered much of it until 1952.
Recent Restorations
In 1989, the roof needed repairs because rainwater was leaking into the organ. The roof was repaired again in 2000. This repair included putting new tiles on the entire nave roof.
Work on the tower began in early 2008. This project cost £700,000. A large amount of money came from English Heritage and the Landfill Communities Fund. The project involved building one of the largest suspended scaffolds in the world at the time. Workers replaced windows, fixed metalwork, repaired stonework, and repainted the clock face. The tower reopened in August 2009.
Architecture of St Mary's
What Does the Church Look Like?
The church was designed in the Neo-Perpendicular Gothic style. It has a tall tower at the west end. Inside, there is a main area called the nave with six sections. There are also side aisles, north and south porches, a chancel (the area near the altar), and a lady chapel. There are rooms for priests (vestries) at the east end. The church is 210 feet (64 metres) long.
Outside the Church
The most striking part of the church is its tall west tower. It has four levels and is topped with tall corner spires called pinnacles. This tower is 167 feet (51 metres) high. It might have been inspired by the tall church towers in East Anglia. There is a clock face on three sides of the tower. The clock was made by Gillett & Johnston of Croydon. When the tower was finished, it became the tallest building in Portsmouth. It was taller than St Thomas' Church until the Guildhall was built in 1890.
The south side of the church has a small porch where it meets the tower. The nave has 6 pairs of two-light windows high up, called clerestory windows. These let in a lot of light. The Lady Chapel has two large five-light windows.
The chancel is a bit lower and narrower than the nave. It has a very large seven-light window. On the north side of the chancel is a two-story room for the vestry and organ loft. Most of the church, including the stair turret, has a decorative top edge called an embattled parapet.
Inside the Church
The inside of the church feels bright, open, and spacious. The main entrance is under the tower. There is a beautiful vaulted ceiling here. The west window has four sections of stained glass. This window remembers W. H. Smith, the generous donor. The tower is narrower than the nave. Above the tower entrance, a window lets you see into the church from the ringing chamber, which is about 45 feet up.
The nave is very tall and wide. It has large arches that go up to the height of the side aisles. The nave is separated from the tower by an iron screen. The windows in the north aisle show scenes from the Old Testament. The windows in the south aisle show scenes from the New Testament. In the south aisle, you can also see a royal coat of arms from 1822. It was originally in the medieval church.
The nave has an amazing hammerbeam roof. This type of roof has wooden supports that start partway up the walls. The roof is made of oak and has gilded (gold-covered) decorative carvings called bosses.
The chancel has a wooden vaulted ceiling at first. Then, past the chancel arch, it changes to a stone vaulted ceiling. Behind the altar, there is a large seven-light window. The stained glass in this window was made in 1952. The original glass was mostly destroyed by a bomb in 1940.
What Materials Were Used?
The church is mostly built from flint on the outside. Bath stone is used for decorative parts. The roofs of the nave and aisles are tiled. The tower and chancel roofs are covered in lead. The font, which is a large basin for baptisms, is in the middle of the nave. It is made from alabaster from Staffordshire. The pulpit, which is a raised platform for sermons, is very large. It is made of Hamstone from Somerset.
The Organ
The organ at St Mary's Church is one of the largest and best in any parish church on the South Coast. It has 2,622 pipes! It was built by J. W. Walker & Sons starting in 1888. The new organ was designed to be as grand as a cathedral organ. It was planned to have four manuals (keyboards). The organ cost £1,784.
When it was first installed in 1889, the organ only had two manuals and pedals. The fourth manual was not used until 1892. This was thanks to a gift from W. H. Smith's widow. The extra manual was removed in 1965.
The organ was officially dedicated on October 31, 1892. The choir sang a special song, and the Bishop of Winchester gave a sermon.
The beautiful wooden case for the organ was not installed until 1901. It is made of solid oak. This case remembers the soldiers who died in the Boer War. The organ case has many detailed carvings of the church. A special service was held on October 12, 1901, to dedicate the organ screen. During the service, Chopin's "Marche Funebre" was played to remember those whose names are on the screen.
There were plans to make the organ even bigger several times. But these plans did not happen because of the Great Depression and World War II. It was not until the late 1950s that the organ could get the maintenance it needed. In 1961, the new vicar, Freddy Temple, started a big fundraising campaign. He got help from famous historians and musicians.
In 1962, Walker & Sons, the original builders, suggested a complete update. This would have cost £10,000. The church could not raise that much money. So, the project was made smaller. It only included taking apart, cleaning, and putting the pipes back together. This cost £7,300. The organ was rededicated on June 13, 1965.
In 1981, a local company worked on the organ again. They changed the pitch (how high or low the notes sound) of the entire instrument.
Organ Restoration: 2020-2023
In 2020, a three-year project began to restore the organ. This is the biggest restoration in its history. The project received a huge grant of £764,000 from the National Heritage Lottery. The church still needs to raise £64,000. As of June 2021, the church had raised £29,800.
The restoration involves taking the entire organ apart. It is being sent to Nicholson & Co's workshop in Malvern. While there, the pitch change from 1981 will be reversed. New electronic parts will be made. The 1965 console (the part with the keyboards) will be replaced with a copy of the original one. All the pipes will be cleaned and returned to their original Victorian condition. The electrical system will be replaced, and the wooden case will be waxed. The pipes left the church on November 12, 2020.
While the main organ is being restored, a Viscount Regent 365 digital organ is being used. It has three manuals and was lent to the church. Because the building is so large, thirteen amplifiers have been installed to make sure the sound of the digital organ can be heard throughout the church.
The Church Bells
In 1764, a company called Lester & Pack made six bells for the church. These were hung in the small Tudor tower of the old church. When the new church was almost finished in 1889, four of these old bells were moved. They became part of a "new" set of eight bells. Four new bells were also made by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. All eight bells were hung in a new wooden frame high up in the tower. The largest bell, called the tenor bell, weighed about 16 long hundredweight (810 kilograms).
The "new" set of eight bells was first rung on the church's opening day, October 10, 1889. Bell ringers from all over the area came to ring them. People said the bells had a "remarkable depth of tone". However, they were very hard to ring. The bells were hung about 70 feet (21 metres) above the ringing room. This meant the ropes were very long and stretchy. Also, the tower moved a lot when the bells were rung. The staircase also got in the way of the ropes. A newspaper from 1889 said that the ringers had to stop because they were "sheer exhaustion".
Despite how difficult they were, many full peals (long sequences of bell ringing) were rung on these bells. By 1932, the bells were in bad condition. The parts and frame could no longer support them. So, the tower was closed to ringing.
Luckily, a man named Mr F. Hopkins offered to pay for all eight bells to be recast and rehung. The old bells and frame were sent to John Taylor & Co in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
The restoration involved recasting all eight bells. They were made slightly heavier. The tenor bell now weighed 17 long hundredweight and 7 pounds (867 kilograms). The bells were rehung in a new iron frame. This new frame was placed about 25 feet (8 metres) lower in the tower. The bells got all new parts, including ball bearings. The inscriptions from the old bells were copied onto the new ones. The tenor bell also had a special message thanking the Barron Bell Trust for their donation.
The bells were hung behind glass windows. These windows were made soundproof. This means the sound has to travel up to the old belfry level before it can be heard outside. This made the bells much quieter at street level.
The new set of eight bells was dedicated on April 8, 1933. Bell ringers from all over the South East came for the event. After the service, the bells were rung for the first time. Everyone agreed the new bells sounded "excellent" and were "amongst the finest peals of eight in existence". Moving the bells lower in the tower helped reduce tower sway and made the ropes shorter. Since then, the bells have not needed major work. They are still popular with visiting ringers. More than 200 full peals have been rung on them. There isn't a local team of ringers at the church. So, volunteers from the Portsmouth District ringers or visiting teams ring the bells.
List of Vicars
Here are the priests who have been the Vicar of St Mary's:
- 1878–1896; Edgar Jacob, who later became a Bishop
- 1896–1901; Cosmo Gordon Lang, who later became Archbishop of York, then Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1901–1909; Bernard Wilson
- 1909–1919; Cyril Garbett, who later became a Bishop and then Archbishop of York
- 1919–1927; John Francis Lovel Southam
- 1927–1939; Geoffrey Charles Lester Lunt
- 1939–1944; Henry Robins
- 1944–1961; Walter Smith
- 1961–1970; Freddy Temple, who later became a Bishop
- 1970–1981; Ken Gibbons, who later became an Archdeacon
- 1981–1991; Michael Brotherton, who later became an Archdeacon
- 1992–1998; Robert Wright, who later became Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons
- 2000–present; Bob White
Images for kids
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The exterior, showing the high west tower, Lady Chapel, east window and vestries.
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View out over the church from the small gallery attached to the ringing chamber, some 45 feet up
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The 1889 Walker & Sons organ, sitting on a gallery in the north transept
See also
- List of places of worship in Portsmouth
- St Mary's Anglican Church, Busselton, Western Australia, which was named after this church
