Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4654NE HIGH STREET, Stonehouse
740-1/56/820 (North side)
01/05/75 Former Royal Naval Hospital: The
Church of the Good Shepherd
(Formerly Listed as:
HIGH STREET, Stonehouse
Royal Naval Hospital: Chapel)

GV II

Chapel at former Naval Hospital. 1883, restored after war
damage in 1945-6.
MATERIALS: Plymouth limestone random rubble (like crazy
paving) and limestone dressings; dry slate roofs with coped
ends: nave roof above wooden clerestory with trefoils and
cusped 2-light dormer windows with round tracery over mullion
shafts (4 to each side); half-conical roof over chancel;
lean-tos over aisles, all with ornate cornices, and stone
spire to tower.
STYLE: Gothic Revival, mostly with early English details.
PLAN: nave: semicircular-plan chancel; N and S aisles with
integral E porches; short transept to W end of N aisle; small
apse to W end of S aisle, and small-plan tower with baptistry
to SW corner.
EXTERIOR: early Gothic style features including stiff-leaf
capitals, nail-head ornament and shaft rings; cusped and
traceried 2-light windows with nook shafts with carved
stiff-leaf capitals: 6 chancel windows with linked hoodmoulds
over pointed arches. Nave has punched trefoil band running
between gabled 2-light dormers; 4 squat 2-centred arched
windows to each aisle; quatrefoils above similar windows with
hoodmoulds and moulded impost strings to ends of aisles. At W
end of nave is large 2-centred arched window of 2 orders over
W porch with 2-centred outer arch of 2 orders and
trefoil-headed inner doorway. S porch is gabled; N porch has
squat moulded arch and lean-to hood above which is a series of
5 quatrefoils over 3 trefoils. Tower is of 3 diminishing
stages with octagonal upper stage surmounted by steep spire
with finial; carved cornices above each stage. 2nd stage has
chamfered corners and paired lights; lower stage has corner
shafts and single lights with trefoil heads.
INTERIOR: light white-painted interior with natural wood
arch-braced (hammer-beam) and aisled roof carried on slender
wooden posts; moulded pointed chancel arch over clustered
polished marble shafts; fan roof over chancel with turned
shafts with richly-carved capitals to windows.

FITTINGS: include marble font with quatrefoils and turned
shafts; 2nd font which seems to be made of a wooden ship's
bollard and part of a gun; pitch-pine pews with V-jointed
boards and shaped ends; ships' badges. War memorial.
A very unusual church design, described by Pevsner as
"engineers' Gothic", and set in good grounds as part of an
outstanding military hospital complex.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
655; Morrison K: Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse: Cambridge:
1992-: 100373).

Listing NGR: SX4674754741

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26407175

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)