PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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On Sunday December 31st a room was opened at the Union Baths, in what was then Union Road, as a temporary place of worship. It was said to be 'well papered' and had been fitted out 'with much neatness'. The long, open seats had bee painted to make them look like oak and the communion table was covered with a handsome crimson cloth bearing the initials I.H.S. (Iesus Hominum Salvator - 'Jesus Men's Saviour') but without the cross. To the north of the communion table was a lectern. As the room was not very high it could not hold a pulpit. Only 45 people attended the first service. The seats were to be free to the poor but the Reverend Hookey expressed the wish that those who could afford to would take sittings. At the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of the Church (see below), the Reverend Bliss told of the foundation of the school. A sadly un-named lady of the parish visited every house in the locality seeking funds towards such a venture and in Union Street in particular got nothing but refusal. Undaunted, she then approached her friends and asked them how much they would give a week towards a school. Not for a month or a year, she told them, 'I cannot tell if the school will last more than a week'. She then hired a school-room in Bath Street and waited there for a long time before a child made its appearance. Work on erecting the Church started in 1854. The walls had reached about three feet in height when the work was stopped 'owing to a failure of the supplies'. This poor situation began to change when the Reverend James Bliss MA was appointed as incumbent. He at once appointed a curate to look after the spiritual needs of the district while he travelled around the country soliciting subscriptions with which to pay of the debt of £70 left by his predecessor and to build a permanent church and school. By an enormous effort he succeeded in eventually raising the sum of £1,100. The Prince Consort had given £25, the Bishop of Plymouth and the Reverend T A Bewes of Beaumont House had each given £100, and smaller donations were received from the Earls of Fortescue, Devon and St Germans, Sir Massey Lopes, Sir Frederic Rogers, Sir J Coleridge, Mr Kekewich MP, Miss Champernowne, Mr Roundell Palmer, Doctor Yonge, Mr Rendle, and Mr Cotton, amongst many others. In the meantime, the school had passed to another lady to look after but she fell ill and the sixty to seventy children had been left in the care of a young assistant mistress. On Thursday May 3rd 1860 the Venerable Archdeacon Downall laid the foundation stone for a permanent building in Citadel Road. The Reverend Bliss told how at Christmas 1859 the infants' school had been placed in the care of a certified master. As a result the attendance was increasing every day. However, there was still a need to erect a school-room near the Church and if that were not possible, then an iron one would be acquired. The sum of £16 9s 3d was collected at the service. The church was of stone in the Early English style and designed by Mr J Piers St Aubyn. The initial contractor was Mr Walter Roberts of Stonehouse, until the job was taken over by Mr Adams. It was consecrated at 11am on Thursday October 24th 1861 by the Right Reverend Aubrey George Spencer, DD, Lord Bishop of Jamaica, who was acting for the Bishop of the Diocese. At that time the Church consisted of a double apsed chancel with north and south chancel-aisles, and a small portion of the nave, altogether affording space for about 330 persons. This included a chamber in the north apse, which was to be used for the school children. The double apse was an unusual feature but it relived the east end of the building from looking too flat. Seven steps laid with Minton's encaustic tiles led up to the altar. On the south side of the altar was sedilia, with three grades, beneath a freestone canopy supported by polished shafts of Devonshire marble. The reredos was composed of Minton's embossed indented and enamelled tiles, with a white marble cross inlaid on a dark red ground, which was sculptured by Mr Bovey, of Plymouth, as were the sedilia. The altar was of solid oak and the oak lectern and temporary pulpit were placed within the chancel screen, which was also of oak. The chancel aisles and that part of the church that had been completed were furnished with open varnished deal benches. The font of caen stone, richly engraved, had been the gift of the Reverend D M Morrice, a former curate of St Andrew's Chapel, and it had already served its holy and useful purpose in the temporary chapels which preceded the churches at St James the Great and St Stephen's in Devonport. The font was placed at the temporary western end of the Church. Very handsome gas standards had been supplied by Messrs Singer, of Frome, in Somerset. It was not until 1880 that the Church was completed and in that year the Reverend Bliss retired. The building in the 1930s consisted of a chancel, nave and aisles and an unfinished tower. Three of the windows in the chancel, one in the south aisle and one west window were stained. The church was restored in 1888-91. It at one time sat 600 persons.
An interior view of St James the
Less Church, After the Second World War it was decided to use the money gained from War Damage Compensation to build a new St James the Less Church on the new Council estate at Ham Drive, partly as a replacement for the temporary St Anne's Church. The work started in September 1957 and the foundation stone was laid in March 1958 by the Reverend W T Trelawny-Ross, the last owner of Ham House. This new rectangular building of a steel frame faced with red brick was designed by Messrs Evans and Sloggett. It had Georgian-style, mustard-coloured window frames, a heated floor and a striking roof of pure white arches between blue acoustic tiles. It even boasted a bell turret. The new St James the Less was opened in 1958 and consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter, Doctor R C Mortimer, on Saturday February 28th 1959 in the presence of the Bishop of Plymouth, Doctor Norman H Clarke, and the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Alderman and Mrs G J Wingett. The Reverend G Sunderland became its first vicar.
The interior of the new Church of
St James the Less At the rear of the Church is an altar dedicated to St Stephen, upon which is fixed: 'This chapel has been furnished as a memorial to St Stephen's Church, Devonport (1858-1941), destroyed by enemy action. The war damage payment for the ruins of the building provided most of the money to erect this Church. The statue of St Stephen is a replica of the one which formed part of the screen of the old Church. Together with the altar cross, it was carved from the wood of the figure on the crucifix erected outside the Church in memory of the fallen of the Parish (1914-18), which was later removed and almost destroyed by enemy action. The furnishings of the chapel are a gift of former members of the congregation of St Stephen's, Devonport.' The east window was designed by Sir Ninian Comper.
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