Description

HYTHE

687/0/10008 STADE STREET
17-SEP-10 (West side)
CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS

II

Also Known As: ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS' CHURCH, PORTLAND ROAD
Church. Erected in 1893. Gothic style pre-fabricated tin tabernacle supplied by Messrs Humphries of Croydon, similar to no. 47 in their catalogue. Paid for by The Rev. F. T. Scott on land donated by the Watts family.

MATERIALS
Exterior walls and roof of corrugated iron over a steel frame. Wooden windows. The interior is boarded throughout.

PLAN
Aligned north to south because of a restricted site, it comprises a nave with bellcote and porch at the north end, transepts, an apsidal-ended chancel and a further room added between 1907 and 1938 in matching style to the north of the eastern chancel.

EXTERIOR
Windows are wooden pointed arched windows with Y-tracery and mullions. The north gable end has plain wooden boargeboards and a pendant. The square bellcote has a pyramidal roof with C20 tiles and wooden bell frame. The larger central window has three lights, the side windows two. The projecting porch has a central gable with curved bargeboards with finial and trefoil decorations. Beneath is a pointed-arched, ledged, double plank door, flanked by mullioned and transomed casements, with similar windows in the returns. The west side has three pointed-arched windows and a similar one to the transept, which has a gable with plain bargeboard. The east side has two pointed-arched windows, a similar transept with one pointed-arched window and plain bargeboard with finial, and a projecting gabled room with bargeboards, two pointed-arched windows and pointed-arched plank door in the north return. The apsidal chancel has a metal cross at the junction of the nave and chancel and three Y-tracery windows of three lights.

INTERIOR
The north door leads into a vestibule with four-panelled doors leading into the church. The interior is boarded throughout and has a five-bay wooden roof with collars to the trusses and metal ties. There is a wide pointed chancel arch and adjoining arched entrance with ledged plank door, leading into the west transept, used as a vestry. A wider door on the east side leads into a room in use as an office giving access into the east transept. The east transept is now used as a kitchen and has a similar ledged plank door. The chancel has a carved wooden reredos with five panelled arches with ogee heads.

HISTORY
This church was built as a mission church to provide services to the rapidly expanding mainly working class population of Hythe on the south side of the Royal Military Canal. Especially in the holiday season the Parish Church of St Leonard's, Hythe was very overcrowded and The Folkestone Express of 27 August 1892 stated that 'The congregations were packed like herrings in a box.' In 1893, the vicar of St Leonard's, the Rev. T. G. Hall, was given the triangular site at the junction of Stade Street and Portland Road adjacent to the Town Bridge by the Watts family in order to build a new church. The whole expense of the building was defrayed by a former vicar of Hythe, the Rev. F. T. Scott. A pre-fabricated iron church was ordered, erected within months and dedicated on 19 September 1893. An oak altar was provided by a Mr Andrews from oak grown on his own land. At the opening ceremony the Archdeacon of Mainstone dedicated the church to St Michael and All Angels and the Rev. Scott preached the sermon.

The Folkestone Express of 23 September 1893 noted that the church was built by Messrs. Humphries of Croydon at a cost of approximately £300 and was lined with wood. The church shows strong similarities with No. 47 in Humphries' illustrated catalogue. The church was intended to seat about 280 people and the triangular shape of the site required the church to be aligned north to south with the altar facing south.

The church originally had gas lighting, coke stoves and a manual organ. The manual organ is now in St Peter's, Canterbury. The pews were removed in the C20.

The building is shown on the 1898 Ordnance Survey map with its present footprint except for the extension to the north of the transept, added after the 1907 Ordnance Survey map and before the 1938 Ordnance Survey map.

SOURCES
'The Folkestone Herald' , (27 August, 1892, 8 July and 23 September, 1893).
'The Hythe Reporter', (23 September, 1893).
'The Folkestone Express', (23 September, 1893).
Smith I, Tin Tabernacles. Camrose, (2004), 31, 32, 38 and 70.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
St Michael and All Angels' Church, Hythe, an 1893 tin tabernacle is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a fairly elaborate example of a tin tabernacle.
* Intactness: it survives substantially intact externally; the interior retains original fittings.
* Relatively few corrugated iron churches of all denominations remain in England, mostly smaller and simpler than this church.
* Historical interest: this church reflects the missionary purpose of the Church of England in the late C19 to serve new congregations in competition with the Nonconformists.

Reasons for Listing

Yes, list at Grade II.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673102

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

• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide