Church Of St Augustine Of Hippo

Church of St Augustine of Hippo

This church, located on St Augustine Avenue in Grimsby, was built in 1910–11 by Sir Charles Nicholson of Grimsby, working with HC Corlette. A north aisle was added in 1935, also designed by Nicholson. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with ashlar windows and a green slate roof, executed in a stripped Gothic style.

The church is planned as a five-bay aisled nave with west and south doors, a chancel with a two-bay arcade leading to a north chapel, a south chapel, an organ chamber, and a vestry to the south.

The south aisle features four external bays. A round-headed entrance at the far left has raised imposts and leads into an internal porch with a plain inner door beneath a lintel. Above the outer arch is a small round-headed niche with raised imposts and sill containing a small painted figure sculpture. Another round-headed entrance at the far right has a painted tympanum. Between these are a pair of three-light windows with four-centred arched lights. The parapet is brick-coped with a pair of arched openings to downpipes featuring decorative rainwater-heads.

The west end of the nave has an enclosed porch flanked by pilaster buttresses and a pair of slit lights. A recessed four-centred arch of two orders contains double doors with a painted tympanum. Above is a five-light nave window and a vesica light in the gable, with a three-light window to the south aisle. A recessed round-headed door to the north aisle is entered from a passage.

The north aisle, continuous with the north chapel, has a pair of pointed two-light windows with Curvilinear-style tracery and a pair of projecting bays for confession boxes. The north chapel itself has a pair of square-headed two-light windows with round-headed lights. It is topped with a concrete-coped parapet with openings for downpipes.

The chancel's south side features a two-storied gabled section containing the organ loft, with a round-arched bellcote opening flanked by twin round-headed blind openings with sills and raised imposts. A flat-roofed single-storey vestry adjoins it, with a round-headed door, two square-headed three-light south windows, and a single-light east window. The east end displays a three-light four-centred arched window to the south chapel and a four-light round-headed window to the chancel with simple Curvilinear-style tracery. Below this is a lean-to porch to a crypt or basement, with an arcaded front of three narrow round-headed arches containing a door and a pair of shuttered windows; returns feature blind round-headed panels and coped parapets.

The interior contains a five-bay south arcade and a continuous seven-bay north arcade to the nave and chancel. Both arcades have pointed chamfered arches and square piers with narrow banded capitals. The west end has projecting internal porches and a chamfered segmental-arched recess with a pedimented carved wooden World War I memorial. The north aisle features a pair of segmental-arched confession stall recesses.

The south aisle's east end contains an altarpiece with a statue of a priest and an arch to the south chapel (formerly the Lady Chapel) containing a balcony to the organ loft. The chancel has a wide arch to the south chapel with a similar balcony, wood panelling to the walls, and arched recesses for sedilia and piscina with three round-headed niches above them. These niches formerly contained painted wooden statues of Saints Cedd, Monica, and Augustine, which now stand in the south aisle and north chapel.

The nave and chancel are covered with painted boarded ceilings featuring king-post trusses and shield plaques representing Grimsby's former churches. A chancel screen and pulpit of grained wood with traceried panels and frieze are present. The foundation stone is dated 28 January 1911. A 1960s baldacchino with square Corinthian columns and modillioned cornice stands above a carved pilastered altarpiece. The north chapel contains a stone altar with a pedimented wooden reredos, flanked by arched recesses containing two figures of saints (originally in the chancel) below a painted coved wooden hood with an ornate carved openwork frieze.

Stained-glass windows in the north aisle and north chapel were designed by Comper; plain glass is used elsewhere. The church also features choir stalls with carved panels and painted pews in the nave.