Garrison Church Of St George, Whittington Barracks

The Garrison Church of St George, completed in 1881, stands north-east of the parade ground within Whittington Barracks in Lichfield.

The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with stonework and a slate roof, designed in the Early English style. It is oriented north-west to south-east and follows a cruciform plan with a nave, chancel, and north and south transepts. An external lobby and chaplain's office are attached to the south side of the chancel, while the vestry and verger's office are attached to the north transept.

The exterior features gables with low coping, many carrying small stone wheel crosses, with another wheel-cross crowning the sanctus bellcote. Each elevation has at least one large circular window with cinquefoil tracery. The building stands on a battered plinth. The remaining windows are mainly lancet type, some with hood moulds and others with plain horizontal lintels. At the west end of the nave are north and south facing doors with narrow porches. The nave walls have three stepped buttresses separating individual windows, with moulded sill courses. The transepts project from each side of the nave, each with a large circular window and a gable without a cross. The chaplain's office, attached to the east side of the south transept, has horizontal lintels over the south door and windows, with a chimney stack rising from the boiler room beneath, accessed by stairs to the east. The single-storey vestry and verger's office, added between 1902 and 1923, feature a pair of chimneys and small and large lancet windows with wooden frames. A protruding timber surround frames the north-facing external door leading into the vestry.

The interior is highly decorated. The chancel features a blue panelled vaulted roof with gold-coloured framing, an ornate altar screen with regimental crests, altar rail, finely decorated tiles around the altar, panelling bearing memorial inscriptions, and pews with decorated ends including regimental and other insignia. A low rood screen is also present. The brick chancel arch with mouldings and blunt-pointed arch rests on a pair of ornate painted pilasters. An ornate wooden pulpit stands below the north side of the chancel arch, whilst a decorative alcove containing the Book of Remembrance is inserted into the wall near the south side of the arch. The very wide single-span barrel-vaulted nave is lit by four lancet windows in each of the long walls and three circular windows with cinquefoil tracery, together with four blunt-pointed arch windows below. Regimental colours hang from the walls alongside numerous memorials. Simple wooden pews occupy much of the nave, and an octagonal Portland stone font with four pilasters and decorated panels on the basin stands at the west end. Originally two doors led into the west end of the nave from north and south; the northern one is now blocked with a commemorative wooden panel, whilst the southern one sits within a pointed arch frame within a cambered opening highlighted by a pair of narrow brick courses. Pairs of transepts lead from the east end of the nave, each separated from the nave by a pair of blunt-pointed arches supported by a single ornate Early English style Portland stone column. The south transept provides the main access to the church, whilst the north transept gives access down a short flight of steps to the vestry and verger's office.

Whittington Barracks were built as part of a far-reaching national modernisation programme carried out by Edward Cardwell, Secretary of State for War, during the 1870s. Work on the barracks began around 1877, was executed by Harry Lovatt & Son of Wolverhampton, and was completed by 1881 when they were occupied by the 1st and 2nd South Staffordshire Regiments and the 1st and 2nd North Staffordshire Regiments.

Cardwell, appointed to the War Office in 1868, addressed a chronic recruitment issue through reforms set out in the Localisation Act of 1872. He established a network of local depots centred on areas with sufficient population to sustain them, rather than based on operational needs. This was the first national barrack-building initiative in England during peacetime. Across Britain, 29 new depots, including Whittington, were built from scratch, whilst approximately 40 existing barracks were adapted. The building programme was supervised by Major H.C. Seddon, Royal Engineers, Director of the Design Branch. The new barracks conformed to a standard model with local variations, incorporating many improvements advocated by the Army Sanitation Commission and its predecessors.

Whittington Barracks has remained fully operational since 1881, expanding, contracting, and being altered to meet developing operational needs. By 1902, enough accommodation had been added for the barracks to become a two-battalion station.

The Garrison Church of St George was the first building at the barracks to be completed, originally built as a chapel-school. During weekdays it served for education, and on Sundays as a place of worship. The Whittington Chapel School was designed to accommodate 521 worshippers and 175 school children, though at various times it housed 383 soldiers, 50 officers and ladies, and 66 women and children. The vestry served as a place of worship for other religions. The building was not consecrated as a place of worship until 24th June 1924. The church houses a wide variety of regimental and ecclesiastical memorials, including records of those who died in various conflicts.

The building has seen only limited alteration since its construction and represents a rare surviving example of a Cardwell-period garrison church, combining high-quality Early English style design with significant historic associations.