Description

632/5/157 CHURCH STREET
18-MAY-72 SEAVIEW
CHURCH OF ST PETER

II
Between 1859-62 Thomas Hellyer of Ryde built the nave, north aisle and a small chancel. The chancel was enlarged and the north vestry built c.1871. The south chapel and south aisle were added in 1920 by Stephen Salter. The vestry was added in 1973 and the east two bays of the north aisle added in 1984

MATERIALS: Coursed Swanage rubble with ashlar dressings. The slate roof has bands of fishscale tiles and terracotta ridgepieces.

PLAN: Four bay nave and north aisle with two bay south aisle, two bay chancel with south lady chapel and north west porch. Small bellcote to the north aisle, the base of a demolished spire.

EXTERIOR: The east front adjoins Church Road. The chancel projects with a tall traceried window with hood-mould with square corbels and three trefoil-headed lancets with three cinquefoil lights above. The corners have offset buttresses. The east end of the north aisle has a double trefoil-headed window with drip-mould with square corbels and an offset buttress. The east end of the south aisle replicates the north aisle. The north aisle has a small metal bellcote at the junction between the nave and chancel. There are four lancet windows, the eastern one obscured by the 1973 flat-roofed vestry with lancet and pointed arched doorcase. Entrance into the church is by a 1984 link block between the church and church hall. The south aisle has three lancet windows and a marble wall war memorial. The vestry has a flat-headed window and two doorcases, the eastern one blocked. The west end of the nave has a large window with two lancets and a circular window above.

INTERIOR: The nave and aisles have thin scissor-braced roofs. The north aisle has a four bay arcade with short octagonal piers, chamfered capitals with quatrefoils and low pitched arches, bordered in red brick but faced in yellow brick underneath. These arches were copied for the 1871 two bay south aisle. The chancel arch has short paired marble shafts with elaborately carved capitals and corbels. The chancel has sedilia to the north and stoup to the south.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Chancel screen of 1909 by Jones and Willis in thin ironwork, with gables, cusps and intricate patterns in panels and spandrels and 1909 oak choir stalls by the same firm. The chancel has patterned encaustic tiles. Octagonal stone font on clustered marble colonnettes and wooden cover with scrolled ironwork. East window of St Peter with flanking figures against a background of diagonals and rosettes. North aisle has William Morris stained glass window of The Good Shepherd and a further stained glass window of Christ Walking on the Water. The west window has a 1906 window of St Michael. The south aisle south window is a memorial stained glass window of the Crucifixion with soldiers to Charles and Philip Watson, casualties of the First World War. The central window is a memorial window to Stanley Jackson Snowden and Harold Jackson Snowden also killed during the First World War. There is also a memorial window to George Dudley Austin Black D. 1916 at Vimy Ridge depicting an Arthurian knight, damsel and castle with the inscription `The Young Knight defendeth the weak'.

HISTORY: Seaview was originally part of the large parish of St Helens until in 1858 William Anthony Glynn gave a plot of land known as Six Acres in order to build a Church or Chapel of Ease of which he remained the patron. The architect, Thomas Hellyer, was responsible for a number of churches on the Isle of Wight and in the Portsmouth area and was the leading Wight architect at this time. The church originally had a spire on the north aisle, most of which was removed in the late 1960s when it became unsafe. The south aisle and Lady Chapel was built as a memorial to the men of the village who had fallen in the 1914-1918 war. The south aisle was completed in 1969.

SOURCES
Bulbeck, P., `St Peter's Seaview' (undated church guide)
Lloyd, D and Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Isle of Wight (2006), 257.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The Church of St Peter, Seaview, Isle of Wight, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural Design: nave and north aisle were designed in Gothic style in Swanage stone by the notable local architect Thomas Hellyer of Ryde and subsequent additions have been in matching style and materials.
* Interior Interest: complete interior fittings including a fine iron chancel screen by the firm of Jones and Willis and a number of stained glass windows, one by Morris and Co.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for 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, 12 January 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St. Peter's Church, Seaview at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7591332

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

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  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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