Church of St Stephen

Details

LANSDOWN ROAD (East side) 656-1/16/787 Church of St Stephen 12/06/50

GV II*

Parish church. 1840-1845. By James Wilson. Chancel 1883 by Willcox. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate roof. PLAN: Cruciform plan with late C19 additions to east end. EXTERIOR: Diagonally leaded pointed arched windows with foliate stops to hoodmoulds, planked doors with ornate wrought iron hinges, ornate brattished rainwater heads with square section downpipes and flower fixings. Original building has coped parapets, lintel friezes, weathered sills, triple moulding to plinth, offset angle buttresses gabled above parapet with pointed finials and cinquefoil heads to window lights. Late C19 half-octagonal chancel has crocketed finials articulating projecting coped parapet chequered with four-petal flowers in square panels, supported by foliate bosses on lintel, ogee arches to three two-light east windows. Late C19 block in angle between chancel and north aisle (possibly vestry) has door to east side, north side has ornate finial to gable over circular window with mouchette and quatrefoil tracery, below are two windows with tracery to centres and tops. Late C19 block to north-east has steeply pitched roof parallel to nave. East end has pierced cross finial and hoodmould over three lancets. Two-bay north side has three offset buttresses flanking two paired windows with string course rising as hoodmoulds, windows have quatrefoils to tops and trefoil heads to lower lights. West side has similar finial and segmental-arched porch to flat-arched door. To left 1845 gabled crossing has buttresses, quatrefoil in circular window over tall three-light window panelled to base, with intersecting tracery and mask stops to hoodmould. Left return has small low trefoil-headed window and large blind two-light window. North side of nave has two two-light windows flanked by similar paired buttresses. West tower is 120ft high, in three stages with extended diagonal offset buttresses gabled above first stage. Panelled double doors to three sides are set well back, pointed architraves have six engaged columns without bases or capitals that meet at apex, casement moulding between forms one continuous moulding. Above west door are three deep cinquefoil headed niches with continuous arcaded hoodmoulds, to returns are single lancets. Three stringcourses have clock between upper two on west front. Second stage octagonal, buttresses continue as free-standing octagonal turrets linked at top by frieze of pierced quatrefoils in circles, mouldings to top and base of frieze continue around turrets that have finials similar to those of buttresses, below friezes half-arches spring from turrets to friezes with quatrefoils in spandrels. North, east and south facets of second stage have three-light louvered openings with Decorated tracery and mask stops to hoodmoulds. Third stage, similar but smaller has two-light louvered openings and smaller octagonal turrets. South side similar to north side. To south-east corner has late C19 gabled block with engaged colonnades to pointed arch of porch to east side. INTERIOR: Handsome painted ceiling by W.J. Wilcox, executed by H. & F. Davis. not inspected, but is reported as having a marble font, dated 1843, which was a gift of the Pinder family, and may have been designed by Edmund Blore of Westminster. The transept ceiling and the reredos are by Sir TG Jackson in c1900. East window to Lady Chapel depicting martyrdom of St Stephen by Mark Angus, 1983. The crypt was converted to Parish Room 1993-1994. HISTORY. This church was built as a chapel of ease for Walcot Parish at a cost of £6,000, but finally gained parish status in 1881. Its north-south orientation caused problems with the ecclesiologically-minded Bishops of Bath & Wells, and delayed its initial consecration until the same year. The Royal School (qv) used the expressly built NE aisle (probably designed by Wilson & Wilcox) from 1866, and a gallery was added for their use 1884-1885; this continued until the opening of their chapel (qv). The chancel, vestry, organ chamber and organ, added to the designs of W.J. Wilcox, cost £3000 in 1883; there is a drawing of the chancel in the church's possession. St. Stephen's Church is a very important visual focus on Bath's northern slopes; it is also a supremely picturesque composition, which benefits from the freedom from dependency on precedent that was to characterise the next phase of church building. SOURCES: (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 108; Jackson N: Nineteenth Century Bath - Architects and Architecture: Bath: 1991-: 135).

Listing NGR: ST7480066043

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

509668

Legacy System:

LBS

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