Church Of St Mark

Church of St Mark, Pensnett

Built 1846-9, designed by J.M. Derick and completed by Lewis Stride. The church stands on Vicarage Lane in blackened Gornal sandstone ashlar, with tiled roofs.

The building is a large, impressive Early English style church with a cruciform plan incorporating a crossing, transepts, and short chapels to their east—the northern chapel serving as the vestry. The nave is clerestoried with five bays, lean-to aisles, and a substantial porch-tower positioned near the west end of the south aisle. The tower rises in three stages with clasping buttresses. The intended bell-stage and tall broach spire were never completed; the top stage was instead raised to accommodate three square bell-openings and topped with a gambrel roof during Webb & Gray's restoration in 1926. Steep-pitched roofs over nave and chancel are finished with brown tiles featuring fishscale banding, with coped verges on all gables. The exterior is enriched throughout with Early English lancets—either single or grouped—and continuous stringcourses at sill level. Aisle lights are paired; clerestory lights are arranged in groups of three. Cornice tables emphasise the eaves lines at aisle and clerestory levels. The west end displays a doorway surmounted by a widely spaced pair of very tall lancets and a traceried spherical triangle in the gable. The east wall features triple lancets and a rose window of similar composition. The low south chapel, with lean-to roof, originally housed the family of Lord Ward, the church's principal donor.

Interior

The high clerestoried nave and long chancel are impressive in scale. The nave and crossing are roofed as one space, with no wall or arch west of the crossing. Nave arcades have circular piers of red Gornal sandstone with alternating foliate capitals and double chamfered arches. The higher chancel and transept arches feature bulky piers with attached shafts; decorative stonework was carved by W. Dempster. Open timber roofs, stained dark, feature high collars and steep arched braces with two tiers of windbraces. At the west end of the aisles, glazed partitions form meeting rooms, installed as part of a reordering by Roy Pugh of Jennings, Homer & Lynch in 2006.

Principal Fittings

The chancel panelling and reredos with Art Deco angels are by Webb & Gray, 1925. Wall paintings of the Instruments of the Passion by T.W. Camm (possibly Florence Camm) surround the sanctuary. The chancel and sanctuary floors are laid with fine Minton tiles given by Herbert Minton in 1849—elaborate patterns in blue, buff and terracotta—one of 46 such donations he made to Staffordshire churches between 1844 and 1858. Lewis Stride designed the timber chancel and parclose screens, choir stalls, and heavy stone pulpit with blind arcaded sides. Arched panels on the pulpit carry paintings of the Evangelists by the Reverend C.W. Dicker, 1882. Stride's font is heavily decorated with foliage, with lettering and alabaster shafts by Hardmans, 1882. Pews are pale oak, 20th century. The east window stained glass is possibly by O'Connor, 1862. North transept lancets are by Brian Thomas, 1966, predominantly in blue, on themes of industry and craftsmanship. South transept glass is by Francis Skeat, 1963 and 1969; south aisle west is also by Skeat, 1968. The south chapel contains glass by C.E. Moore, 1938. Several aisle lights are by T.W. Camm, dating from approximately 1937-60.

History and Development

The church was begun in 1846 and opened in September 1849. Its construction cost was approximately £6,700, of which Lord Ward (who later became the 1st Earl of Dudley and was an active improver of his estates) contributed £5,500. The initial architect was John MacDuff Derick (c. 1805/6-1859), an Irish-born architect trained as a pupil of Sir John Soane. He practiced from around 1835, initially in partnership with a Mr Hickman, and maintained offices simultaneously in Oxford, London and Dublin during the 1840s. Derick was removed from the Pensnett project due to misconduct and replaced by Lewis Stride. This setback may have contributed to a break in his career and a possible return to Ireland in the 1850s. Financial difficulties led to a resumption of work, after which Derick emigrated to New York in 1858 and died there in 1859. The Ecclesiologist's August 1846 issue criticised the design, complaining it was "designed too much for effect" with "needless profusion of ornament" and asserting the design "ought never to have been entertained." Stride (c. 1823-79) completed the work and designed many interior fittings, though the proposed spire was never built; the present roof was installed in the 1920s. By 1910-14, mining subsidence had caused structural damage, threatening the south aisle and transept with collapse. Major repair and rebuilding was undertaken by Webb & Gray from around 1924-6, with further repairs in 1956-8 and refurbishment in 2006.