Description

768/22/243 FLORENCE ROAD
27-FEB-76 (South side)
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW

II
By J. Oldrid Scott & Sons and C.T. Miles, 1907-8. Subdivided in 1986.

MATERIALS: Pinkish-grey Devonshire limestone, Doulting stone dressings. Red tiled roofs.

PLAN: Four-bay nave with two aisles, west narthex and two porches north-west porch. Three-bay chancel with organ loft and vestries (south) and chapel (north).

EXTERIOR: The style is Decorated Gothic c. 1300, and the form is the West country type without tower or clerestory, of three almost equal parts forming arrays of gables east and west. Over the east gable of the south aisle is a bellcote. The west narthex is low, with doors in the sides, and heavy coped buttresses rising above them. The west window is of six lights with a central mullion and two sub-arches. The aisle windows flanking it have three lights with simpler intersecting tracery. The aisles have a mix of segmental and square-headed windows. The east end has windows of three five and three lights, all with cusped and stepped lancets; a little more elaboration in the chancel window. The north aisle has two porches, the west one gabled, that further east with flat roof and quatrefoil windows.

INTERIOR: The nave arcades have octagonal piers with moulded capitals and broad moulded arches. The soffits of the arches are of Doulting stone banded with a darker honey-coloured stone. The walls are plastered. Open roofs of dark-stained timber, without any structural division between nave and chancel. The western bay of the nave was partitioned off in 1986 to create a series of rooms on two floors. There is a rather bald glazed screen entrance from the lobby to the nave, and above it, a big triangular headed window with rectangular glazing, through which the Gothic west window appears.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The reredos of 1934 is of Ancaster stone and covers the whole east wall, with panelled sides and a stepped-up centre. The reliefs of the Risen Christ and four flanking saints were carved by Cecil Thomas; the rest is by Thompson of Cheltenham. The saints stand in niches under little concave gables. The good oak screens and stalls were made by Boulton of Cheltenham. The screens are the whole width of nave and aisles, quite open and simple below, but with much lacy tracery in the heads and a coved rood beam with a big cross. There are parclose screens in the same style, also by Boulton, and a good one-bay wrought-iron grille between the chancel and north chapel. The altar rails and sedilia were made by Trask & Sons of Norton-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, strongly in the Arts and Crafts taste (they were favoured craftsmen of J.D. Sedding and Henry Wilson). The north chapel has a reredos of 1914. The oak pulpit made by Bridgeman of Lichfield is quite sumptuously carved with Flamboyant tracery panels in deeply recessed rectangular panels. In the north aisle is the octagonal Gothic font and cover of 1953 by W.H. Randoll Blacking; the fine classical canopy has a painted ogee dome on brass classical columns. Parish War Memorial, 1921, by C.M. Oldrid Scott; a stone tablet with bronze crucifix, now in the middle of the south aisle. The stained glass is mainly by Percy Bacon, c. 1908-12, including the east window which was designed by J. Oldrid Scott. In the south aisle is a Second World War memorial window by Goddard & Gibbs, 1948. The main losses in the alterations of 1986 were the internal lobby to the west door, which was by Stanley C. Miles, 1936. The original seating was replaced by upholstered chairs. The chancel is floored in chequered black and white stone, the nave and aisles in oak parquet with chequered stone for the walkways.

HISTORY: Boscombe, entirely a 19th century settlement on heathland east of Bournemouth, grew from 282 people in 1871 to 1,895 in 1881. In that year the Boscombe Land Society began the planned development of seaside villas. In 1884 it became responsible for developing the Shelley Manor estates, in several phases. In 1888, Lady Shelley donated two plots in Florence Road to be reserved for a church. A temporary church of St Andrew was opened in December 1890 as a chapel of ease to St. James, Pokesdown. The present building, seating 620 people, was completed in 1908, on the same site. The temporary working partnership of J. Oldrid Scott with the local architect C.T. Miles began at St John, Boscombe, 1893-5. They also designed All Saints, Southbourne (1913-14). For the stained glass in these churches they favoured the firm of Percy Bacon. After Miles's death, his firm assisted C.M.O. Scott in the design of St Christopher, Southbourne (1932-4).

John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913) was the son of the great Victorian architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, and younger brother of George Gilbert Scott junior. He began practice in 1863 in London and specialised in church work.

Charles Thomas Miles (1852-1930) was the son of a Bournemouth builder. He was articled to the architect Dugald McPhail of Shaftesbury 1864-7, worked in the offices of Parken & Creeke 1867-9, then with his father, 1869-72. He became an assistant to A.H. Parken in 1872, and set up on his own in 1875. He became a F.R.I.B.A in 1895, and worked in partnership with his son Stanley C. Miles (b. 1877) from 1909.

SOURCES
N. Pevsner and D. Lloyd, Buildings of England, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (1967).
The Builder, December 17, 1910; with illustration of designs by J. Oldrid Scott for the glass in the east window.
RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Church of St Andrew is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* An Edwardian church in a slightly conservative Gothic style, by J. Oldrid Scott and C.T. Miles, one of several they designed in the area.
* Very high quality woodwork by executed by nationally recognised craftsmen, notably the stalls and screens, the ornate pulpit, and the strongly Arts and Crafts altar rails and sedilia by Trask & Sons.
* Stone reredos of 1934 with carving by Cecil Thomas
* Stained glass mainly by the firm of Percy Bacon, some at least designed by J. Oldrid Scott.
* Font with handsome cover, by W.H. Randoll Blacking, 1953.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 16 August 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26402612

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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