Gatehouse and chapel range, Alton Abbey

Summary

A gatehouse and chapel complex at Alton Abbey, consisting of a gatehouse containing the abbot’s lodgings, with attached porter’s lodge, together with an attached chapel, built in 1901/2-1904; the architect is believed to have been John Cyril Hawes. The attached former guest house and workshop of 1935-1936 is not included in the listing.

Reasons for Designation

The gatehouse and chapel range at Alton Abbey is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as part of a complete Anglican monastic complex, the principal buildings constructed between the 1890s and the 1930s;
* the Gothic gatehouse, containing the abbot’s lodgings, provides a strong architectural focus at the entrance to the abbey;
* the chapel is enlivened by a turreted sanctus bellcote and by stained glass reflecting the community’s maritime associations.

Historic interest:

* as part of a rare surviving Anglican monastery purpose-built for a male community, the rural situation being particularly unusual;
* as one of few surviving English works by Hawes, better known for his Roman Catholic churches in Australia.

Group value:

* the gatehouse and chapel range, together with the separately listed abbey church and monastic buildings, form a coherent and complete conventual complex.

History

The community of Alton Abbey was founded by Reverend Charles Plomer Hopkins (1861-1922), whose work amongst British merchant sailors began in 1884 in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar) where he was cathedral organist and then port chaplain. He founded the Order of St Paul, or the Seamen’s Friendly Society of St Paul, the life of the order followed the Rule of St Benedict, adapted to guide the work amongst sailors. In 1895 a piece of woodland was purchased at Beech near Alton; Hopkins’s intention was that the remote monastery established there should serve as the novitiate, training men for work as maritime missionaries; in practice the abbey soon became a refuge for retired seamen and those travelling between London and the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth.

The first buildings at Alton Abbey were temporary huts, a chapel and a sailors’ home constructed from wattle and daub; these were gradually replaced by buildings in corrugated iron, with a large monastery structure remaining in place to the east of the current church until the 1950s. The permanent buildings were begun in the late 1890s, constructed of flint dug from the site, and bricks made on site; the monks themselves and those seamen who were able are understood to have helped with the construction. The north transept of the abbey church is understood to have been built as a chapel in the late 1890s; the nave was begun in 1905 and completed in 1907. The gatehouse, with the chapel, or oratory, and abbot’s lodging attached, was begun in 1901 or 1902, and completed in 1904. There is some uncertainty regarding the authorship of the church and the gatehouse complex, a fire having destroyed the abbey’s own records. The Buildings of England names Percy Green as the architect, following an account of 1955 (Anson, The Call of the Cloister, p 113 but the architect is believed to have been John Cyril Hawes, as confirmed by his later accounts (Taylor, Between Devotion and Design, pp 9-11). The church was not completed as intended: a presbytery was planned for the east end, and Hawes noted later that square - or cruciform - pillars were substituted for the circular ones he had designed. In 1928, a pyramidal roof was added to the crossing tower by Sir Charles Nicholson; thereafter Nicholson, or his firm of Nicholson and Rushton, undertook the majority of architectural work at the abbey, notably the two courtyard ranges providing a seamen's pensionary and accommodation for the monks. A guest house, linked with the gatehouse, was constructed in 1936, and later adapted as a bakery and workshop.

Following Hopkins’s death in 1922 the Rule of the order was brought into closer conformity with that of St Benedict, with its emphasis on hospitality.The seamen’s home, or pensionary, which occupies the western cloister, was built in 1929-1936 as a memorial to Hopkins; the intended use of the spaces within the western quadrangle being described in a contemporary press report (Hampshire Telegraph and Post, 7 December 1928). The eastern cloister, projected as part of the original plan, was constructed over the following years. In 1955-1956 an extension* was added to the south-east, and a further extension* was added in 1972. In 1982, the community became the Order of St Benedict. In 1984 an extension* was built closing the eastern side of the eastern cloister, providing a shop, meeting room and library. The seamen's pensionary closed in 1989, but the abbey continued to be used as a retreat house. The closure of the abbey is now planned (2025).

The abbey grounds retain some built features of flint and brick, including walling and steps to the north-west of the church. To the west of the abbey buildings is the abbey cemetery, containing Hopkins's grave, together with those of other monks and over 200 seamen. The original iron crosses are stored in the crypt of the church, having been replaced with ledger stones.

John Cyril Hawes (1876-1976) entered the office of Edmeston and Gabriel as an apprentice in 1893, whilst studying at the Architectural Association and at the London County Council’s Arts and Crafts School. Amongst his first buildings was the White Tower, Bognor Regis, built as a holiday home for himself and his brothers (1897, National Heritage List for England entry 1221489); his first church commission was St Christopher, Gunnerton, Northumberland (1899-1900, NHLE 1155349). Hawes's designs for Alton Abbey were undertaken whilst studying for the priesthood; he was ordained in 1903. Hawes converted to Roman Catholicism in 1911. His most prolific period as an architect was spent in Western Australia from 1915 to 1939, working concurrently as an outback missionary. Here his eclectic designs combining Romanesque and Californian Spanish Mission influences (judged by Hawes to be better suited to the Australian climate than Gothic) ranged from small churches in agricultural locations to the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier, Geraldton (1916-1938).

Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson (1867-1949) was a leading church architect of the early C20. He was articled to the late Victorian architect J D Sedding in 1889 and after Sedding's death in 1891 was assistant to his successor Henry Wilson. He began independent practice in 1895 and was in partnership with Hubert Corlette from 1895 until 1916, and from 1920, with Theodore Rushton. In the course of his career he was consulting architect to seven cathedrals, and was architect to four dioceses, including Winchester, within which Alton Abbey stands.

Details

Abbey gatehouse complex, consisting of a gatehouse containing the abbot’s lodgings, with attached porter’s lodge, together with an attached chapel, built in 1901/2-1904; the architect is believed to have been John Cyril Hawes. The attached former guest house* and workshop* of 1935-1936, with the passage linking this section with the chapel, is excluded from the listing.

MATERIALS: knapped flint with yellow brick dressings. There are lattice-glazed leaded windows with casement sections in the gatehouse range, and rectangular metal-framed casements in the 1936 portion.

PLAN: the complex stands to the south of the site, forming an open V-shape plan overall. The gatehouse is to the north-east, set on a south-west/north-east alignment, with the driveway entering the abbey grounds from the south-east, passing to the east of the gatehouse rather than through its carriageway. The chapel projects north-westwards from the south-west end of the gatehouse, attached to that building by a covered passage.

GATEHOUSE

EXTERIOR: in the gatehouse the windows are lancets, set beneath square hoodmoulds. The southern, outward-facing elevation of the main gatehouse range is of three bays, with a large central pointed-arched opening of four orders under a hoodmould, containing original heavy small-panelled gates with chamfered detailing, diagonal boarding and C-hinges; there is an integral doorway for pedestrians. Above, a central five-light oriel window in brick, with a crenelated parapet. To either side, paired lancets under square hood-moulds rest on a stone string. There are offset angle buttresses to the corners. The building originally had a crenelated parapet; by 1924 this had been replaced by an attic storey under a hipped roof with wide eaves; a central bargeboarded gable has lancet openings. The unbuttressed inward-facing elevation is very similar, though with a simpler opening leading to the carriageway; above, a timber oriel is thought to date from the circa 1920 phase. Within the carriageway, a stone within bears the date ‘MDCCCCII.’ (1902). The doorway to the north is partially bricked up, to form a window. The doorway to the south contains a replacement door.

At the north-east end, a narrower block contains the porter’s lodgings; this has a simple pointed doorway to the north, and lancet windows as elsewhere in the building. This section, originally crenelated, has also been raised and roofed.

INTERIOR: the abbott’s lodgings retain white-painted Edwardian fittings including a timber open-well stair with turned newels and balusters, four-panel and boarded doors and a stone chimneypiece with floral tiled grate and hearth. The attic rooms have matchboarded walls.

The porter's lodgings occupy the ground floor of the northern part of the gatehouse. The interior is very simple, consisting of two rooms, refurbished; the fireplace has been removed.

CHAPEL

EXTERIOR: the small, unaisled chapel has offset angle buttresses to the north-west corners; the design is a simple one apart from a sanctus bellcote in the form of a short brick tower, with pointed arches on four sides, crowned with pinnacles around a spirelet. The building is entered through a pointed-arched doorway at the north end of the north-east elevation; the chamfered, hoodmoulded opening contains an original boarded door. On each of the long elevations are two pairs of hoodmoulded lancets, one to the nave and one to the chancel. In the north-west gable wall is a larger pointed-arched opening, containing a casement window; there is a small lancet to the apex. A corbel table runs beneath the slightly jetted eaves on the long elevations; at the gables are projecting bracketed bargeboards. There is a triple lancet in the south-east gable, lighting the liturgical east end. Beneath, a lean-to ambulatory lit by two small lancets, the eaves resting on corbels. The narrow passage linking with the gatehouse is similarly detailed.

INTERIOR: the knapped-flint walls are unplastered, with brick detailing, other than the window surrounds, which are of concrete scored to resemble stone. The boarded roof is supported by hammerbeam trusses, resting on moulded brick corbels. At the liturgical west end of the chapel is a boarded timber screen, above which is a balcony with a simple panelled balustrade; the stair has been removed. The space is divided by a pointed cyma reversa-moulded chancel arch, with lancet openings to either side. Within the chancel, the east windows contain stained glass depicting the Virgin Mary, and saints Basil and Benedict, the fathers of monasticism. In the north wall of the chancel is a pair of stained-glass windows commemorating Father Michael Hopkins (d 1922); the saints depicted are Francis and Michael the Archangel. Windows in the south wall commemorate Henry Gates Warren, mariner (d 1905); the saints depicted are Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, and Paul, patron of the order as originally constituted, and also associated with seafaring. Openings to west and east beneath the east windows give access to the ambulatory passage; within the passage, the windows alternate with smaller niches.

EXCLUSIONS
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest, however any works which have the potential to affect the character of the listed building as a building of special architectural or historic interest may still require LBC and this is a matter for the LPA to determine.

Sources

Books and journals
Anson, P, The Hermit of Cat Island (1957), 19, 217, 276
Pevsner, N, Bullen, M, Crook, J, Hubbuck, R, , , The Buildings of England: Hampshire: Winchester and the North (2010), 174
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (1967), 332
Felstead, A, Franklin, J, Pinfold, L, Directory of British Architects 1834-1900 (1993), 375
Taylor, JJ, Between Devotion and Design: the Architecture of John Cyril Hawes 1876-1956 (2000), 9-11
Anson, P, The Call of the Cloister: religious communities and kindred bodies in the Anglican Communion (1955), 106-122
Anson, P, Building up the Waste Places: the revival of monastic life on medieval lines in the post-reformation Church of England (1973), 149-166
'For God and our Sailors' being a short account of the work of the Seamen's Friendly Society of St Paul among our merchant seamen (1924),
Mackenzie, C, My Life and Times: Octave 2 1891-1900 (1963),

Websites
Alton Abbey website: history, accessed 25 February 2025 from https://altonabbey.com/history-of-alton-abbey
Monsignor John Hawes: website of the John Hawes Foundation, accessed 25 February 2025 from https://www.monsignorhawes.com/
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Charles Plomer Hopkins, accessed 25 February 2025 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/50329
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Sir Charles Nicholson, accessed 25 February 2025 from https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35225
Australian Dictionary of Biography: John Cyril Hawes, accessed 25 February 2025 from https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hawes-john-cyril-6601

Other
Hampshire Telegraph and Post, 7 December 1928; 15 August 1930
Hampshire Advertiser and Southampton Times, 3 September 1932

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