Church of Saint Saviour

Church of Saint Saviour

The Church of Saint Saviour is a church designed by William Woodward, built in two phases with the chancel completed in 1896 and the nave in 1902. The building is unusually aligned north-south.

The church is constructed of locally produced red-orange brick with Ancaster stone dressings and a tiled gable roof. The façade features a projecting porch adjoined to church offices, from which an octagonal turret surmounted by a spirelet rises. To the east, a recessed niche contains a statue of Christ by C.H. Mabey above a pair of lancet windows. The enclosed porch has large gothic windows with beaded stone tracery. The south end of the nave has three slender lancets. On the west and east elevations, the side aisles contain six panels defined by stepped brick buttresses, each with a large pointed arch window featuring trefoil stone and brick dressings. Above the nave wall are smaller clerestory windows arranged in pairs with stone dressings and cogged brick at the eaves. Two small transepts to the north support a small central spire, each with three lancet windows and stone detailing at the gables. The chancel has pairs of lancet windows and three large lancet windows at the east end.

The interior is a stately aisled space with red brick columns and steeply pointed arcades, featuring a vaulted crossing with detailed brick and stone ribs. The arcade piers throughout are constructed with cast iron stancheons surrounded by gauged fletton brickwork, with bath-stone caps and bases.

North of the crossing stands a gilded rood screen by Frank Peck with a crucified Christ above a later addition. The chancel contains a reredos attributed to W.J. Tapper, reworked with a gilded and painted Christ in Majesty in the central panel. Beneath is a fine alabaster marble altar with five panels inlaid with green marble containing figures of Christ, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Stephen and Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus.

The chancel window comprises three lancets designed and executed by Gaetano Meo, the mosaicist responsible for work at the Grade I Debenham House in Holland Park. The window depicts the nativity, with Mary and the Christ-child in the central light, the magi to the right and shepherds to the left. The sanctuary lamps are by Blunt and Wray.

The Lady Chapel to the east has a Baroque reredos and screen by Martin Travers, dating to 1925, featuring winged cherubs and foliate detailing. The gilded super altar has a central tabernacle containing the figure of the crucified Christ, flanked by panels depicting angelic figures. Above the tabernacle, in an open pediment, is a panel with a gilded and painted figure of Mary with the Christ-child. The embossed frontal below, of silver and bronze, depicts the adoration of the magi. A memorial to Henry Frank, Frank Taylor and Mrs Burton is also by Frank Peck.

A fifteenth-century font from a redundant church in Maldon, Essex is located to the south of the nave. The bell is by Mears and Stainbank.

The church was built by a small Anglo-Catholic mission congregation on land gifted by Earl Spencer. A building committee chaired by the Bishop of Colchester organised the project, with William Woodward donating his design services. An iron room was erected on the site in 1896 to serve as a temporary church during construction of the chancel. This was then adjoined to the chancel as a temporary nave. In 1900, the chancel, vestry and lady chapel were completed and sealed off, with all services taking place therein. The temporary nave was removed and work began immediately on the permanent nave, side aisles and enlarged vestry to the west, which was completed fourteen months later. The nave was dedicated by the Bishop of Colchester in 1902.