Minster Church of St Benet, Beccles

Minster Church of St Benet, Beccles

A Roman Catholic minster church built between 1898 and 1908 to the design of architect Francis Easto Banham. The building is constructed of Ancaster stone with Bath stone dressings externally, and Bath stone internally, with machine-made roof tiles. (Note: the sanctuary physically faces south, but liturgical orientation is used in this description, treating the sanctuary as the east end.)

The church is cruciform in plan with an apsidal sanctuary and apsidal chapels flanking the north and south aisles. A square tower rises above the crossing. A porch is positioned at the south-west corner. The nave measures 25 metres long and 12 metres wide including the aisles, extending to 41 metres in total length when the crossing and sanctuary are included.

Exterior

The building is designed in Romanesque style on a large scale. It features a gabled roof, a tall three-storey nave with lower side aisles, and a crossing tower rising 25 metres high. The visual effect is somewhat squat despite the height, as the nave roof rises to approximately 20 metres at its apex.

The west front consists of a gable end with two square turrets decorated with blind arches to the lower courses and two tiers of arcading topped by pyramid roofs. A deep gabled porch containing a round-arched entrance with three orders of shafts and mouldings sits between the towers. Two round-headed windows and three round-headed niches occupy the gable head above the porch.

The south porch is gabled with a Celtic cross finial and corner turrets decorated with three tiers of interlaced arcading. A course of round-headed arcading rises above the door, and the round-arched entrance features beakhead (or beast head) decoration.

Both north and south nave elevations display a corbel course beneath the parapet. Each side has a seven-bay clerestory with round-headed windows and pilasters defining the bays, along with a seven-bay aisle where each bay is defined by pilasters and contains one round-headed window above a string course with a single order of shafts. The western bay of the north aisle contains a blocked arch marking the location of an intended baptistry that was never built. The aisle window capitals to both sides are individually designed, though the overall appearance of the windows remains similar from a distance.

The south transept features a blank lower stage and a row of ten narrow windows to the upper stage. An arcade of alternately pointed and round-headed arches (the latter containing windows) rises above, with a small round window in the gable head. The west return has one round-headed shafted window to the lower stage and two to the upper stage. A single-storey sacristy projects from the east return. The north transept is similar, except that the lower stage of its north front contains three shafted windows.

The square crossing tower has a circular north-east stair turret and pilaster buttresses clasping each corner, with a central buttress to each side. The belfry stage features two recessed panels on each face, each containing two tiers of arcading: three arches to the lower tier and one arch to the upper tier, all with shafts. The tower has a plain parapet.

The apsidal sanctuary is divided into seven bays by flat buttresses and pilasters, with one round-headed window to the top stage of each bay and a corbel course beneath the eaves.

Interior

The interior follows Romanesque style throughout. The nave has a high barrel-vaulted plastered roof with transverse ribs. Elaborate stencilling decorates the area around each arch, and a continuous inscription taken from the Rule of St Benedict runs at wall plate level. The east nave bay displays a gilded and stencilled ceiling, while the area above the adjacent sanctuary arch is richly painted in imitation of fabric.

The seven-bay nave arcade comprises compound piers supporting round arches with billet and roll mouldings. A round-arched triforium stage with roll mouldings rises above, followed by round-headed clerestory windows with shafting. The passageway aisles beneath, to north and south, feature transverse horseshoe arches and groin-vaulted cells.

The sanctuary has a seven-bay engaged arcade of drum piers with scalloped capitals and roll-moulded arches. Above at triforium level runs a continuous blind arcade of round arches on single shafts. Seven deeply-recessed clerestory windows with shafts and roll-moulded arches sit above these, with a domed and decoratively painted ceiling.

The crossing features four tall round-headed arches on compound piers and a coffered, painted ceiling. The transepts contain round-arched openings from the aisles and taller arches leading into the transept chapels. The south transept houses a gallery and organ, and also provides access to the sacristy on its south and east sides, with a door to the tower staircase which initially leads to the organ gallery. The north transept contains the east apsidal Lady Chapel, whose vault is painted dark blue with gold stars.

The richly-painted ceiling decoration throughout the interior is reported to be by F E Banham, though in places it has been overpainted with plain paint.

High-quality glazing appears throughout the building. Many windows are glazed in opaque white glass with coloured frames forming shapes. Some stained glass windows are by Shrigley and Hunt, including one depicting the Resurrected Christ above the north-east aisle door. This window commemorates the architect's mother, Easter Eliza Easto Banham, and the architect and members of his family are buried just outside this door.

Fourteen framed plaster panels depicting the Stations of the Cross were presented by Archbishop Scarisbrick OSB in memory of Dom Ephrem Guy, parish priest at Bungay from 1885 to 1898 and one of the founders of the parish of Beccles.

Late-twentieth-century fittings of note include the Rood beam, a high-quality stone altar forward of the sanctuary on its stepped platform, the pulpit, and an iron and fabric tabernacle designed by Andrew Anderson.