Church of St Paul

Church of St Paul, Friars Street, Warwick

The Church of St Paul began in 1824 as a cemetery chapel, now forming the south transept. The nave and chancel were added in 1842–4 by R.C. Hussey of Birmingham. It is built in limestone ashlar with slate roofs.

The building follows a T-shaped plan. The down-stroke is formed by the original cemetery chapel of 1824 and the main entrance; the cross-stroke is the nave with apsidal chancel. The four bays of the nave west of the south transept are now partitioned off as a hall.

The south transept gable end faces the road in the Tudor Gothic style popular in the 1820s. It has a solid parapet with moulded strings and diagonal buttresses at the angles. The entrance door is a four-centred arch with hoodmould, above which is a two-light window with Y-tracery. Above this sits a datestone of 1824 showing a turreted gatehouse, the emblem of the town of Warwick. The east and west sides of the transept have three-light Tudor windows with one transom and light cusping. Hussey's nave addition of 1842–4 is in the Early English style, with uncusped lancets, buttresses with shallow set-offs, and no parapet. The roofs are low, giving a chapel-like appearance. The north side has seven uninterrupted bays; the south has four bays west of the transept. An unusual square bell-turret with pyramidal spirelet sits at the return east of the transept. The east end is a three-sided apse, unusually broad, with three grouped lancets in the centre bay.

The surprisingly spacious interior was reordered in 2000 to designs by John Bowen of Kelly & Surman, architects of Birmingham. The south transept serves as the main entrance, with internal partitions creating two vestries flanking a central entrance corridor (all of 2000). The corridor opens into a vestibule behind a triple arcade by Hussey (1842–4) linking the transept with the nave. The piers are of quatrefoil section, supporting steeply pointed chamfered arches. The nave is dominated by a dark-stained timber open roof with hammerbeam trusses. The spandrels in the trusses framing the sanctuary are infilled with open arcading, and the ends of the hammerbeams have gilded and painted shields, except over the sanctuary where shields are replaced by gilded angels. The west end of the nave was partitioned to form a hall in the late 20th century, using light stud partitions backed by storage cupboards, with a balcony created against the west wall.

The three-light east window contains attractive and richly-coloured glass signed by Holland of Warwick, 1849. Good late 19th-century glass appears in the west gable rose window, and some smaller panels of similar glass in the hall. In the nave on the north side is a First World War memorial light and two lights by Jane Gray, 1992. An oak pulpit with rich Perpendicular decoration, probably of around 1900–30, is retained. A plain octagonal font with quatrefoil panels, probably of 1842–4, survives. The 2000 reordering introduced upholstered chairs and carpeted floors.

By the early 19th century, significant population growth had occurred around industries on the western fringe of town, and the churchyards of both St Mary and St Nicholas were full. Reverend Thomas Cattell gave land for a new burial ground north of Friar Street in 1824. The ground was consecrated on 23 July 1824 and a chapel (unusually large for such buildings in the 1820s) was completed later that year. The cost of walling the area and building the chapel exceeded £2,000, paid for by the Corporation. In 1842, a new Anglican church was proposed by enlarging the cemetery chapel. Hussey began work on 8 November 1842, and the completed church was consecrated on 26 July 1844 by the Bishop of Worcester. The parish of St Paul was formed from the western part of St Mary's parish. Alterations were reportedly made in 1889. The architect R.C. Hussey (1802–87) was in partnership with Thomas Rickman from 1835 and took over the practice in 1838 as Rickman's health failed.