Church of the Holy Trinity, Hastings, East Sussex

Summary

Anglican church, built between 1857 and 1862 to designs by SS Teulon (1812-1873) and extended in 1892.

Description

Anglican church, built between 1857 and 1862 to designs by SS Teulon (1812-1873) and extended in 1892.

MATERIALS: coursed sandstone rubble with dressed limestone details, under a slate roof.

PLAN: the church occupies a polygonal site, being mostly rectangular but tapering to a sharp angle at the junction of Robertson Street and Trinity Street. The plan is based on an east-west axis consisting of a vestry, chancel and nave, and a south aisle and porch on the south-eastern elevation.

EXTERIOR: the church is Early English and decorated in style under a steeply pitched roof. The west end comprises two gables. The northernmost gable relates to the nave and has a large six-light west window with geometric tracery. The southern gable contains a large doorway to the end of the south aisle with a very tall moulded arch containing a large traceried tympanum and rose window above. The north elevation has six cross-gables, the easternmost five of which contain three-light geometric traceried windows, while the westernmost bay contains an arched doorway with a traceried tympanum above. The chancel towards the eastern end of the church has a semi-octagonal apse with three-light traceried windows between buttresses and gablets passing over through a trefoil-pierced parapet. The north chancel window has complex intersecting geometric tracery.

To the east of the chancel and almost detached, there is a small hexagonal vestry (1892 extension) with ogee arch windows and a quatrefoil panelled parapet with pinnacles. A single-storey runs back from the vestry along the north and south-east elevations. The south-eastern single-storey element contains a small arched door with large spandrel panels, and three single-light and two three-light windows. The northern single-storey element contains a door on its western elevation and a single three-light window on its northern elevation. At the east end of the south aisle is a large entrance porch with hipped roof and very tall moulded arch with drip mould and massive cubic impost blocks. Above this is a heavily traceried tympanum bearing a large sign of the Trinity.

INTERIOR: the interior includes a round font decorated with carved flowers and leaves. Around 1889 a number of alterations were made including the addition of an alabaster and marble pulpit with double staircase by WH Romaine-Walker, intricate carved decoration to the chancel arch by Thomas Earp and an ornate rood screen by an unrecorded Belgian craftsman. The Lady chapel in the base of the organ chamber was added by Henry Ward around 1892.

History

The town of Hastings has been a strategic point of defence from invasion since the medieval period and a protective wall was erected in the early 1300s. In 1337 the town was twice attacked by the French and badly damaged. Up until around 1800, there were two main streets (High Street and All Saints Street), both of which were inside the defences. The threat from France continued throughout the early 1800s and the Duke of Wellington commanded a garrison of around 12,000 troops from a headquarters in the High Street. Nevertheless, by around 1794, Hastings began to develop as a seaside resort with the publication of a printed guidebook and the development of Marine Parade.

In the mid-C19, Patrick Robertson (1807-1885) leased the crown lands of the town for 99 years at a rate of £500 per year. In 1850 he commenced construction of a grand scheme of terraces and municipal buildings, located across Robertson Street, Carlisle Parade and Robertson Terrace, collectively known as Trinity Triangle. The railway arrived in the same year and during the C19, the population of Hastings grew from around 3,000 to 65,000.

The rapid expansion of the town, and its gradual amalgamation with James Burton’s planned resort town of St Leonards-on-Sea, created demand for new places of worship. Local philanthropists funded the construction of the Church of the Holy Trinity, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873). The original proposed location was a piece of land to the north of the Trinity Triangle donated by the Earls Cornwallis, but soon after work started a landslip revealed the land to be unsuitable for building. A new site was selected, which lay in the centre of Patrick Robertson’s new development at the America Ground. Teulon altered his proposals to fit the particularly awkward site which tapered to a sharply acute angle at the junction of Robertson and Trinity Streets. Teulon’s original proposals envisaged a tower and spire on the church’s Robertson Street elevation, but this never came to fruition due to rising costs and in the end, only the lowermost part of the tower (the main entrance porch to the church) was built. Construction began in 1857, with the nave consecrated in 1858 and opened for worship ahead of the construction of the chancel, which was completed in 1862. The adjacent drinking fountain was erected in 1861, also to designs by Teulon. He was the eldest son of a cabinet-maker and of Huguenot descent. After setting up practice in London in 1838, he developed a ‘vigorous and idiosyncratic Gothic style’ designing a number of churches and private houses and came to be considered the most important of the rogue architects of the Gothic Revival.

During the Second World War, Hastings was bombed several times resulting in the death of around 154 people and the damage or total destruction of some 15,000 buildings. Post-war, the town remained a popular holiday destination until the advent of cheap foreign travel in the later C20. Falling visitor numbers were exacerbated by the decline of the town’s small trades and industries.

Reasons for Listing

The Church of the Holy Trinity, Hastings, built between 1857 and 1862 to the designs by SS Teulon and extended in 1892, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the fine quality of its varied Early English and Decorated style elevations, including the complicated, intersecting geometry of the tracery, a semi-octagonal apse and an almost hexagonal, vestry;
* the interior has successive phases of good quality decoration, fixtures and fittings, including a round font decorated with carved flowers and leaves, an alabaster and marble pulpit with double staircase by WH Romaine-Walker, intricate carved decoration to the chancel arch by Thomas Earp and an ornate rood screen by an unrecorded Belgian craftsman;
* the plan is inventive in dealing with a particularly awkward site which tapers to a sharply acute angle at the junction of Robertson Street and Trinity Street.

Historic interest:

* as a notable design by SS Teulon, who designed a number of churches and private houses and came to be considered the most important of the rogue architects of the Gothic Revival.

Group value:

* with other listed buildings in the immediate vicinity including the adjacent Hastings Library (the former Brassey Institute NHLE entry 1043388), 14 Claremont (NHLE entry 1353250), and the drinking fountain to the north-east (NHLE entry 1043397), also designed by Teulon, all listed at Grade II.

External Links

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