Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST PAUL (467253)

WEYMOUTH SY6779SW ABBOTSBURY ROAD 873-1/19/3 (North side) 14/06/74 Church of St Paul II Anglican parish church. Dated 1894 (foundation stone). By GH Fellowes-Prynne, at a cost of »5,267; chapel extension dated 1903. Squared and snecked rock-faced masonry with limestone dressings, on a continuous plinth, bright red tile roofs. PLAN: nave with W baptistery, aisles under swept-down main roof, S porch, double-gabled S transept, apsidal S chapel, chancel, organ gallery and vestries; the main ridge has a twin-gabled bellcote. EXTERIOR: the detail is Decorated or Perpendicular, but with Art Nouveau overtones, particularly in the tracery and cusping. The coped W gable with terminal cross and kneelers has a 4-light window above the apsidal baptistery, with hipped roof behind a high coped parapet, and 7 cusped lancets. There are square buttresses to the nave and diagonals to the aisles, with 3-light W windows. The aisles have 1 and 2-light windows to square heads; the S side has a gabled porch with paired plank gates to grillage upper panels, and small quatrefoil side lights, to the left a single light, and to the right 2+2+1-lights. The transept has coped gables above 4-light windows, and a plank door on the W side; to the right is the lower apsidal chapel with 5 cusped lancets; there is a flush foundation stone panel dated 29 April 1903, at the E end. At the junction between nave and chancel is the bellcote, and a raised coped gable with heavy haunched gablets, on S and N sides. The chancel has 3 lights set high, and the lofty E gable, with coping and terminal cross, over a 5-light window with label and stops; below the glazed section is stone panelling with 5 plain shields. Diagonal corner buttresses, and a central squat buttress with commemorative stone, on which the inscription includes: 'Laid May 9th 1984 by Alice Countess Hoyes/ Rev Sydney Lambert, Priest/ HG Fellowes-Prynne, Architect/ Cephas Foad, Builder .....'. To the right are 2 later flat-roofed extensions, and the high gabled organ loft and vestry. The N aisle has 7 bays, with square buttresses. INTERIOR: plain plastered and painted walls. The 4-bay nave has broad pointed moulded arches on octagonal piers with high bases and crenellated caps, with a small extra pointed opening each side at the W end. The trussed rafter roof with embellished plate has light arch-bracing to the bays, on attached shafts and corbels. The aisles have lean-to roofs, hipped at the W end, and windows in deep embrasures to flat segmental rere-arches. The inner porch doors are plain plank, under a segmental head. Floors are in plain clay tiles, with wood block in the seating areas. At the nave W end is a broad flat 4-centred arch on splayed and stopped jambs opening to the baptistery with joist ceiling and mosaic floor; the single lancets are in deep embrasures. At the E end of the N aisle is a 'flying' half arch to the organ chamber, and a similar arch gives to the S transept, which has a deep valley beam, continued across to one of the nave piers with a traceried section. The chapel has a rafter roof with flat central section and short canted sides. The chancel, on 4+2 steps, has a low stone screen with wrought-iron gates and cresting, and 'Minton' tiled floors. The roof structure is as in the nave. There are 3 lights set high each side of the sanctuary, which is on a further 3 steps, with a fine carved and gilded reredos flanked by panelling. To the S are 3 narrow arches, on paired round columns, to the chapel, and to the N is a wide segmental arch over the organ. FITTINGS: carved wood pulpit on a stone base, brass eagle lectern, simple turned baluster altar rail, limestone octagonal font on quatri-lobed base; the bowl has sunk panels with figures or leaves in Art Nouveau style. STAINED GLASS: the E window is a 'King of Kings', and the W depicts the Ascension. The S chapel and baptistery have a series of saints, and the S aisle windows contain coloured glass, but not the transept of N aisle, where the glazing has Art Nouveau leading. An idiosyncratic but convincing design, well maintained, built for an area being rapidly expanded at the turn of the century. (Buildings of England: Newman J & Pevsner N: Dorset: London: 1972-: 452). Listing NGR: SY6720379239

Record last edited

Oct 16 2009 10:42AM