Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Edmund

Summary

A Roman Catholic church built to the designs of William Wardell in 1857 and extended by the construction of the church nave to the designs of George Goldie in 1865.

Reasons for Designation

The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Edmund, Abingdon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building is a good example of the influence of AWN Pugin’s form of Gothic revivalism on the generation of architects that succeeded him. It creates an expression of an idealised community made manifest in its architectural form;
* the building combines good design and craftsmanship in its planning, stained glass and stone carving.

Historic interest:

* as a work by two notable architects of the Roman Catholic Gothic Revival;
* as the product of the patronage of an influential Catholic figure and local landowner.

Group value:

* as part of a group of near-contemporary Roman Catholic buildings built to a unified design by a single patron. The Church of Our Lady and St Edmund, the Presbytery, the cloister-corridor that joins them and the former schoolroom to the north-east which is now the church hall all combine to have group value.

History

The Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 permitted the first new generation of Catholic places of worship to be built in England and Wales since the Reformation. They were forbidden to feature bells or steeples and were typically small, classically or domestically detailed, and were often hidden or set back from public view. The 1829 Act of Emancipation removed most remaining inequalities from Catholic worship and was accompanied by a growing architectural confidence. By the 1840s AWN Pugin’s vision of the Gothic revival as a recovery of England’s Catholic medieval inheritance fuelled stylistic debate and inspired new design for both Catholics and wider society. In 1850 Pope Pius X ‘restored’ the role of bishops, cathedrals and dioceses in England, inviting more elaborate architectural projects.

The Church of Our Lady and St Edmund and its associated buildings were erected by the local landowner, Sir George Bowyer Bart. who lived at Radley House (now Radley College). He was an expert on jurisprudence and constitutional matters and a significant figure in ecclesiastical politics in the mid C19. He had converted to Catholicism in 1850 and inherited his baronetcy in 1860. He was an influential supporter of Cardinal Wiseman but fell out with Cardinal Manning. Bowyer’s patronage at Abingdon extended to two phases of building. The first building campaign started with the eastern end of the church; the chancel and south chapel, together with the cloister passage which connected the church to the presbytery, which was also built in this first phase. Bowyer's initial architect, Wardell had been a protégé of AWN Pugin, but in 1857, the year that the first phase at Abingdon was completed, Wardell left England and moved to Australia, where he was responsible for the design of the Roman Catholic cathedrals at Melbourne and Sydney. The church at Abingdon was then completed to the designs of George Goldie, who had undertaken work for Bowyer at the Great Ormond Street Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in an Italianate style. The completed church was opened in October 1865.

In 1974, as a result of the Second Vatican Council, the sanctuary was reordered by Austin Winkley with the loss of the original altar.

The church is dedicated to Our Lady and St Edmund of Abingdon. St Edmund was born in the town in 1175. He taught for many years in Oxford and, as canon-treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, he presided over the opening of the cathedral in 1225. He died at Pontigny, where his body is enshrined above the high altar. He was the last Archbishop of Canterbury to be canonised.

Details

A Roman Catholic church initially built to the designs of William Wardell in 1857 under the patronage of Sir George Bowyer of Radley House and extended by the construction of the church nave to the designs of George Goldie in 1865.

MATERIALS and PLAN: Marcham stone walling with a tiled roof. The building has a nave of four bays with nave aisles to either side and a chancel with a Lady Chapel to its south side. The south aisle extends for the full length of the nave and the north aisle only extends for two bays at the eastern end of the nave. An additional northern aisle with organ chamber extends beyond and connects with the flank of the vestry hall. The church is joined to the presbytery by a cloister passage which runs east-west. Both the cloister passage and the presbytery are the subject of a separate listing.

EXTERIOR: the west front has two bays divided and flanked by offset buttresses with gabled tops. Windows are of two lights with quatrefoils to their heads. To the gable head are two small lancets, above which, straddling the apex, is a gabled bellcote with a single bell. The bellcote was added in 1884 and replaced a spirelet. To the right of this is the western end of the southern aisle, which has a lean-to roof and a two-light window with a cinquefoil to its apex. The similar end of the north aisle is set back and the second north aisle has a two-light window with ashlar surround which includes carved shields to the ashlar panels below.

The south side has a doorway with portal to the west end of the side aisle. To its right are two, two-light windows with quatrefoils to their apexes. The clerestory windows above the lean-to aisle roof are a series of four quatrefoils. To right of this, flanking the earlier chancel and designed by Wardell, is the Lady Chapel which has a higher ridge than the aisle and two, two-light windows.

The eastern gable end has a five-light traceried window below which is a carved, square ashlar panel showing Christ Crucified. The Lady Chapel east window has three lights and a traceried head.

The north side has two nave windows of two lights at right, as before. At left are the double aisles which have two three-light windows to their north side. To left again is a gable with central chimneystack which bears a square ashlar tablet with a coat of arms, similar to that on the south front of the presbytery. At either side of the stack are two-light windows with tracery heads. This forms the point of juncture with the cloister passage which is the subject of the separate listing, together with the presbytery.

INTERIOR: the nave has simple round columns with drum capitals which appear to have been intended for carving. The south arcade consists of three, wide arched openings, contrary to the pattern of four bays indicated by the roof and the rhythm of the north arcade. Arcade arches have simple chamfered mouldings. To the north side are two arches leading to the double aisle on this side which is shorter.

The decoration of the chancel and the southern Lady Chapel is more elaborate with carved capitals and stops to the hood moulds and complex mouldings to the arches. The chancel, side chapel and organ chamber are all connected by lateral arches. The Lady Chapel has a stone altar with carved frontal in the style of Pugin showing three scenes from the life of the Virgin set in quatrefoil frames. The background to the altar and the ledge of the retable above are carved with foliage in high relief. Window embrasures are moulded with colonettes to their sides. Pillars in the north aisle are inscribed with the names of saints associated with Abingdon and with the patron, Bowyer. The nave and chancel have wagon roofs and the side aisles have panelled roofs. The chancel was reordered by Austin Winkley in 1974 as a result of the requirements of the Second Vatican Council of 1961-1965. This appears to have resulted in a simplifying of the C19 decoration and the removal of the C19 altar, but the dedication to Our Lady and the fact that the church was halted after the initial building campaign may have meant that the chancel was always less decorated than the Lady Chapel.

To the north east is the vestry hall, which connects with the cloister corridor that leads to the presbytery. This has a roof with angle braces and tie beams and a plate safe with metal door.

FITTINGS - STAINED GLASS: the east chancel window, showing scenes from the life of the Virgin and St Edmund, is by Hardman and the lights in the Lady Chapel showing the Virgin and individual saints are by Clayton and Bell.

The north aisle contains a medieval statue of the Virgin, found at Culham and brought here and painted in the mid-C20.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (2010), 99-100
Hill, Rosemary, God's Architect, Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain (2007), 234-235

Websites
Architectural History Practice, Taking Stock Report for Portsmouth Dioicese, accessed 25/10/2022 from https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/abingdon-our-lady-and-st-edmund/

End of official list entry