Description

PORTLAND

SY67NE AVALANCHE ROAD, Southwell
969-1/1/166 (East side)
21/09/78 Church of St Andrew, with boundary
wall

II

Anglican parish church. 1879, by C.R. Crickmay, architect.
Rock-faced coursed stone with ashlar dressings, bright red
clay tile roof. Nave, with bell-cote to west gable, north
porch, south baptistry, lower chancel. Simple Early English
style with lancets, buttresses and coped gables throughout.
West front has three stepped lancets under statue niche and
double bellcote; north porch projects, with boiler house to
its left, double plank doors under statue niche; stone stack.
Nave north side has two pairs of cusped lancets; chancel
triple lancet. East end has three stepped lancets to stepped
moulded drip course carried across gable width. South front
with 3 single lancets to chancel and 2:3:2 lancets to nave.
Baptistry has single lancet to east and west, and triple
lancet to south. Interior: unplastered 4-bay nave with
arch-braced trusses and 2 purlins, simple wind bracing;
principals brought down to stone corbels. Windows in deep
embrasures to flat segmental heads, quarry tile floors to
walkways. Double-chamfered segmental-pointed chancel arch,
boarded ceiling to chancel. North side has lancets with
colonnette screen, walls plastered, decorative tile floor.
Round stone carved pulpit on short marble columns, font west
end of nave, C19 stained glass in all windows except south
side nave by chancel arch: centenary glass by Jon Callan of
Southwell, 1981; window formerly blocked by pipe organ,
removed 1974. Former baptistry, now vestry, with boarded
ceiling, heavy marble columns to responds, parclose screen
moved forward into nave.
Subsidiary features: boundary wall in rock-faced masonry to
weathered coping; square gate piers to moulded pyramidal
cappings opposite north porch, and simple trimmed opening at
head of flight of steps to south side. Wall varies in height,
is retaining structure for most of its length.
Built, at a cost of »1900, as a memorial to lives lost in the
wreck of 'Avalanche' and 'Forest' in September 1877, and
usually known as 'the Avalanche church'. A model of
'Avalanche' set in to glazed recess north side of nave, and
artefacts removed from the wreck displayed similarly in porch.
A well-maintained building in a prominent position, and an
important reminder of the former treachery of the coastline to
sailors in these waters.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Newman J: Dorset: London:
1972-1989: 344).

Listing NGR: SY6868870180

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Andrew at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4827487

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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