St Saviour'S Church

St Saviour's Church

St Saviour's Church stands on Lidget Lane in East Retford. Built in 1828–9 to the designs of Edward James Willson of Lincoln, it was reordered in 1877–8, 1936 and 2001.

The church is constructed of yellow brick with limestone dressings and blue slate roofs. It comprises a five-and-a-half bay nave with two aisles that are not structurally visible from outside, and a shallow chancel typical of Late Georgian Commissioners' Churches. The building is severely rectangular, with solid parapets all round above a cornice moulding. The half bay at the west end accommodates the lobby and gallery stairs.

The shallow chancel has a five-light east window with one transom, set beneath a four-centred head with minimal tracery. Diagonal buttresses mark the angles of the chancel and nave, with further buttresses dividing the bays on the north and south sides. The aisle windows are three lights with transoms where the galleries formerly crossed the openings. Side entrances are set beneath the fifth windows of the aisles, with single lancets lighting the gallery stairs. The west gable is flanked by octagonal turrets with slim openings above the roof line and ogee leaded caps. The west window matches the east window in design, with double doors beneath a square hoodmould below.

The interior is dominated by high four-centred arcades on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and a continuous hoodmould. The roof structure is simple, comprising tie-beams braced to short wall shafts. The west gallery has plain panelled fronts with short projecting stubs marking where the north and south side galleries were removed in 1936. At the east end of the aisles is a screened organ chamber on the north side and a small chapel without structural separation on the south. The walls and internal dressed stone have been painted.

No original fittings survive. The nave is carpeted with moveable chairs from the 2001 reordering. Simple pine pews of 1878 remain in the gallery. The high altar is plain oak, big and panelled, and came from Southwell Minster. The reredos is probably early 20th century with painted panels and a fretted frieze. Gothic altar rails probably date from 1877–8. The oak pulpit has Perpendicular-style arcading and the date 1878 in a foliage frieze. A small stone font was installed in 1971. The sanctuary contains a First World War memorial of opus sectile. The aisles have a few early 19th-century tablets in Grecian or Gothic style.

The north aisle contains the lower parts of two windows by C.E. Kempe & Co. Ltd, memorial windows of 1907 and 1916. The east window is typical glass of 1882. The south aisle has one good window of 1980 dedicated to John Lancaster, unsigned.

The building originated as Moorgate Chapel of Ease or St Saviour's Chapel, originally in the parish of Clarborough. The two-acre site was given by Henry Clark Huchinson of Welham. The foundation stone was laid on 2 June 1828, and the opening ceremony took place on 27 September 1829. The chapel seated approximately 1,000, with 600 free sittings, at a cost of approximately £4,000. It served the populous districts of Moorgate and Spital Hill, relieving the burden on St Swithun, East Retford.

From March 1877 the interior was reordered with new seats, lectern, organ and pulpit, reopening on 9 January 1878. The north and south galleries were removed in 1936. Alterations in 1970 included a new roof and new internal west doors. In 2001 the church was relit, carpeted, decorated and the pews replaced by chairs.

St Saviour was the first major work of Edward James Willson (1787–1854) of Lincoln, an architect, antiquary, councillor and magistrate. He developed considerable knowledge of Gothic architecture largely through observation at Lincoln Cathedral and collaborated in the publication of John Britton's Architectural Antiquities (1807–10). His papers including architectural drawings are held at the Society of Antiquaries, London, with microfilm copies at Lincoln Archives.