Presbytery to the Roman Catholic Church of St Edmund King and Martyr (excluding the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the rear), Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Summary

Former mission house, built in 1761-1762 for Fr John Gage SJ, becoming a presbytery to the Church of St Edmund King and Martyr in 1837, extended in the C19 and late C20.

Description

Former mission house, built in 1761-1762 for Fr John Gage SJ, becoming a presbytery to the Church of St Edmund King and Martyr in 1837, extended in the C19 and late C20.

The former private, and illegal, chapel at the rear of the presbytery, which was incorporated into the church in 1979 and rededicated as the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, is included in the listing for the church (Grade II*, NHLE: 1142338). Its gallery, however, which has been annexed as a parish office, forms part of the presbytery's listing.

MATERIALS: of red brick in Flemish bond with penny-struck pointing, brick stacks and plain-tile roofs.

PLAN: it is of two storeys with cellar and attic, laid out in a double-pile plan, aligned east to west, with two parallel gabled roofs.

EXTERIOR: the north-facing principal elevation to Westgate Street is of five bays with a chamfered and painted brick plinth and a wooden modillion cornice. It has a central, six-panel wooden door, the top two panels glazed, set within a wooden doorcase with panelled reveals, panelled pilasters and a frieze with a triple keystone surmounted by a triangular pediment. All the other bays across both floors contain one-over-one horned sashes in plain reveals with flat, skewback, gauged brick heads. The attic has three gabled dormers with weatherboarded gables and C20 two-light casements with horizontal glazing bars. At each end of the roof there are large gable-end stacks. Recessed at the west end is a C19 two-storey single-bay addition with a cogged cornice and two-over-two horned sashes in flush-cased frames with flat, skewback, gauged-brick heads, the ground-floor window replacing a former doorway in the C20.

The rear elevation is of two bays with the Blessed Sacrament Chapel projecting to the right and a late-C20 flat-roofed bay adjoining to the left (at the rear of the C19 single-bay addition to the front). The left-hand side bay of the original house has a six-over-two sash on the ground floor and a six-over-six sash on the first floor while the second bay to the right has a six-panel door with a flat hood on the ground floor, the top two panels glazed, and a large staircase window comprising a six-over-six sash above; all the windows are unhorned with plain reveals and flat, skewback, gauged brick heads. The attic has three segmental-headed dormers with C20 two-light casements with horizontal glazing bars. The late-C20 bay to the left, which projects slightly, has a six-panel door with a deep, three-light fanlight to the ground floor and a two-over-two horned sash above.

INTERIOR: the axial entrance hall has a plain plastered ceiling and walls, a decorative scroll cornice and six-panel doors giving off to the two front rooms and to the kitchen at the rear right, all of mid-C18 date.

The right-hand front room retains many original features including a lugged architrave to the door, a moulded dado with large, bolection-moulded panelling above, an ornate scroll cornice and two windows with deep reveals with panelled shutters and window seats.

The left-hand front room also has two windows with deep reveals with mid-C18 panelled shutters and window seats. The in-built cupboards with two-panel double doors flanking the fireplace are probably of C19 date while the panelled wainscoting, moulded picture rail, square-headed fire surround and hearth stone are all late-C20 in date.

The kitchen to the rear right has an original moulded cornice, panelled window shutters and an in-built display cabinet with a segmental-headed top section with pilastered sides and shaped shelving and panelled cupboard doors below.

From the left-hand side of the entrance hall, directly opposite the kitchen door, a transverse corridor with a segmental-headed panelled surround provides access to the church’s confessional and sacristy, from where separate doors give off onto the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, the latter room also having an internal door to the church’s vestibule. As these areas are in ecclesiastical rather than domestic use, they are described in the List entry for the Church of St Edmund King and Martyr (NHLE: 1142338).

From the hallway’s rear right, a dog-leg staircase rises against the kitchen wall to the first floor. It has bracketed open strings embellished with foliated scrollwork and vase-on-reel balusters supporting a ramped and wreathed handrail with a curved end supported by a cluster of balusters set upon a curved curtail step. The staircase and rear section of the landing have an ornate scroll cornice identical to that in the hallway while the front section of the landing, which is separated from the rear by a plaster-moulded transverse beam, has a plain moulded cornice, probably a later replacement. The two right-hand side rooms on the first floor are subdivided by a transverse corridor which was inserted in the C19 from to provide access to the single-bay addition at the west end.

The right-hand front room retains an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave along with a moulded cornice to the north, east and west sides; the south wall along with its cornice and four-panel door all date from the remodelling undertaken in the C19 when the corridor was inserted. On the north side there are two windows with moulded architraves and deep, plain, splayed reveals bearing the scars of now removed window seats, all of mid-C18 date. The west side has a wooden fire surround and a four-panel door to its right-hand side, both of probable C19 date, the latter providing access to an ensuite in the single-bay addition.
The middle front room has an original, internal, four-panel door in a moulded architrave to the adjoining left-hand front room, suggesting that it was originally a dressing room. It also has a four-panel door in a moulded architrave from the landing along with a moulded cornice and a single window with a moulded architrave and deep, splayed reveals with a window seat, all of mid-C18 date.

The left-hand front room has an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave, a moulded cornice and two windows with deep, splayed reveals bearing the scars of now removed window seats, all of mid-C18 date. On the east side is an original, plain, square-headed fire surround, although the tiled infill surrounding the late-C20 gas fire is a later addition, possibly in the early C20. Flanking the fireplace are two sets of original, built-in wardrobes with single-panel double doors.

The right-hand rear room has an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave, a moulded cornice and a single window with deep, splayed reveals bearing the scars of a now removed window seat. On the east wall is an original, plain, square-headed fire surround, although the tiled infill with an Art Nouveau-style secondary surround is a later addition, probably early C20. To the right-hand side of the fireplace there is an in-built wardrobe with two panel double doors, probably mid-C18, and to its left-hand side a late-C20 plain wooden door giving off to an ensuite in the late-C20 addition at the west end.

The rear left room, which has a lower floor level, originally the gallery to the private chapel, was annexed in the C20 and is now (2022) used as a parish office. It has an original four-panel door along with a Lombard frieze below a deeply coved ceiling on the north, east and west sides. The south wall is a late-C20 glazed screen which separates the room from the lofty Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

The attic is accessed by a late-C20 dog-leg staircase which gives off onto a north-south aligned axial corridor with two rooms on each side. Each room has a plank and batten door with a small bead moulding down one edge of each plank, three being original and one a late-C20 replacement. The rear left room has a late-C20 lowered floor and a collar rafter roof with exposed framing including wall plates with mortices indicating the position of the original floor level, tie beams, collars and studs, all mainly of mid-C18 date but with a small number of machine-sawn replacement rafters. All the other rooms have plain plaster walls and ceilings.

Beneath the house is a brick-lined cellar with a high timber ceiling.

History

In 1633, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) established a college in Bury St Edmunds, and for a short time, during the reign of James II (1685-1688), ran a house, chapel and boys’ school within the bounds of the abbey ruins. The mission was supported by the Rookwood family of Coldham Hall, Stanningfield, Roman Catholic recusants whose notoriety rests on Ambrose Rookwood's involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, for which he was executed in 1606. Ninety years later his great-grandson, also called Ambrose, suffered the same fate for conspiring to assassinate William III. Much support came from Elizabeth Rookwood (died 1694), who is believed to have donated 50 chalices to their cause. However, the Glorious or Protestant Revolution of 1688, at which time the town had a Catholic mayor and was the headquarters of the Jesuit mission of East Anglia, brought the mission to an end.

The Jesuit presence in the town resumed in 1755 with the arrival of the Fr John Gage SJ, the son of Elizabeth Rookwood Gage (1684-1759), heiress to the Coldham Hall estate and founder of a mission house at Coldham Cottage, Lawshall (Grade II, NHLE: 1375999). Fr Gage initially conducted Mass in secret at a house in Southgate Street, but in 1761-1762 he built, with financial support from his brother, Thomas, and cousin, Sir William Gage, a mission house at 21 Westgate Street. It was equipped with a small, and still then illegal, chapel at the rear, from where the first Mass was celebrated on 8 December 1762. In 1791, following the second Catholic Relief Act, the chapel was licensed for public worship, one year after Fr Gage's death.

In 1836-1837, to meet the demands of the town’s growing Catholic population, a new church, St Edmund King and Martyr (Grade II*, NHLE: 1142338), was built on land immediately to the east of the church, and the mission house subsequently became its presbytery.

In 1979, the former private chapel to the rear of the presbytery, having fallen into disrepair, was refurbished and incorporated into the adjoining church and rededicated as the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The chapel’s gallery was annexed from the church with the insertion of a glass screen to create a parish office accessible only from the presbytery.

Reasons for Listing

The Presbytery, 21 Westgate Street, built in 1761-1762 as a mission house, becoming a presbytery to the adjoining Church of St Edmund King and Martyr in 1837, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a particularly good example of a mid-C18 town house that survives little altered;

* its principal rooms survive mostly intact, displaying particularly high-quality fixtures and fittings, including panelled doors, architraves, window shutters, panelling, and an elaborate staircase in the hall.

Historic interest:

* the church reflects the history, development and emancipation of Roman Catholicism in Bury St Edmunds.

Group value:

* strong historical and functional relationship with the adjoining Roman Catholic Church of St Edmund King and Martyr (listed Grade II*), the two buildings representing continued public Catholic worship in the town since 1762.

External Links

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