Description

899/24/383 SARISBURY GREEN
22-OCT-76 SARISBURY
(East side)
CHURCH OF ST PAUL

II
c.1836 by George Guillaume, with chancel and south chapel by George Fellowes Prynne added in 1880 and 1922 respectively. North-east vestry extended 1908. Minor mid-C20 extension to west end is not of special interest.

Materials: Tower, nave and transepts of brick with stone and stucco dressings. East end of squared hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings. Welsh slate roof.

Plan: Cruciform: west tower, two-bay nave and single-bay transepts (all of 1836), two-bay chancel (1881) with apsidal chapel (1922) to south and organ chamber and vestry (1881 and 1908) to north.

Exterior: early Gothic style throughout. Tower, nave and transepts have lancet windows with surrounds and hood-moulds of stucco. Tower of three stages having diagonal corner buttresses with heavy stone off-sets; four-centred west doorway with stuccoed surround; lancets to middle stage and belfry; parapet above with pediment-like projection to each face; cross-shaped recesses in return walls; low quarter-octagonal extension to north. Two single lancets on each side of nave; triple stepped lancets in transepts. Chancel has triple-lancet east window in ashlar-faced recess with hood-mould and flanking colonettes, set between massive angle buttresses. South chapel has three tall lancets, plus smaller lancets in apse linked by stone cill-band and string-course.

Interior: Lobby space beneath tower with timber stair to west gallery. Nave and transepts have exposed roof trusses, with plaster rib-vault at crossing. Organ on west gallery, the latter's arcaded frontal breaking forward slightly in centre to accommodate console. Floor is stone-flagged, with modern semicircular altar platform at crossing. Tall moulded chancel arch flanked by smaller chamfered arches leading to the south chapel and vestry, the latter now blocked. Chancel has complex open timber roof and encaustic tiled floor, Much ashlar detail including sedile and piscina beneath deeply-recessed south windows, and carved corbels resembling ammonites supporting massive principal roof-truss. Colonettes divide the three east window lights and the two south windows. South chapel is roughly square, with chamfered arch leading to apsidal sanctuary, the latter having a carved piscina and a blue mosaic floor.

Principal Fixtures: In nave, Victorian pine pews with shaped ends. Polygonal carved stone pulpit at crossing, formerly integral with stone and wrought-iron chancel screen, the latter now removed. Two sets of pine choir stalls - one now moved to rear of nave - with shaped ends topped by cross finials. Brass communion rails with foliage ornament. Three-gabled high altar reredos of stone and polychrome marble with carved roundels depicting the Evangelists. English altar in south chapel with traceried front panel and twin angel-topped riddel posts behind.

Stained glass: In north transept, early Victorian patterned glass with small Last Supper scene in central light. South transept window dated 1870, the central light also showing the Last Supper, with SS Gabriel and Michael in the outer lights. Single-light Good Shepherd window to left. Three-light east window showing Christ of the Apocalypse with the twenty-four elders (Revelations 4:10); below, the Adoration of the Shepherds and Magi. South chancel windows showing the Resurrection and Crucifixion with Gothic canopies and text panels. Three windows in south chapel represent incidents from the life of St Paul; these are similar in design to the chancel windows and must pre-date the building of the chapel. Three small lancets in apse with figures of saints.

Subsidiary features: Lych-gate to west of tower, c.1893. Carved traceried timber superstructure on rubble and freestone base with hipped tiled roof; Biblical texts carved in blackletter over the lintels.

History: St Paul's was built c.1836 as a chapel of ease for the village of Sarisbury and its surrounding hamlets, becoming a parish church in 1863. The original church, designed to seat 440, was the work of the Southampton-based architect George Guillaume (c. 1808-1868). Subsequent additions included the present organ (1869) and tower clock (1877). In 1880 the young George Fellowes Prynne (1852-1927) rebuilt the original short chancel at double its original length, with an organ chamber and vestry to the north. New glass was installed throughout the eastern part of the church at around this time. The present lych-gate was erected c.1893, the vestry extended in 1908, and the south chapel, also by Prynne, added in 1922 as a memorial to the dead of the Great War.

Sources:
Cooper, M., St Paul's Church Sarisbury Green (1995).
Pevsner, N and Lloyd, D., The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (1967).
Church Plans Online, at http://www.churchplansonline.org/, accessed on 10 June 2010 (Incorporated Church Building Society records).

Reasons for Designation: St Paul's Church, Sarisbury Green, Fareham, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reason:
* Architectural interest: a typically sober late-Georgian church with powerful late-C19 and early-C20 additions by an important architect.
* Stained glass: good scheme in chancel and south chapel in a unified High Victorian style.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26566259

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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