Church Of St Silas The Martyr

The Church of St Silas the Martyr was built between 1911 and 1913, designed by Ernest Charles Shearman. It is a substantial building of purple-brown Fletton brick with stone dressings and a tiled roof, constructed in a stripped Gothic style.

The west front is mostly blind, featuring a bellcote and an inset stone cross flanked by narrow lancet windows and small flying buttresses. The north and south facades contain single and three-light, trefoil-headed lancet windows in the clerestory. Each gabled transept has three similar windows, with the main entrance located in the south transept. The chancel is notable for its brick pilaster strips, a Lombard frieze, and alternate bays with pointed lancets linked by a continuous stone string. A south entrance porch features an inscription on the parapet, flanked by corbel figures of knights with armorial shields, a standing statue of St Silas to the left, and a stone crucifixion to the right, the plinth of which serves as a war memorial. A projecting chapel of St Francis was added to the (liturgical) south side in 1913.

Inside, the church features passage aisles and a chapel on the south side, with a smaller chapel leading to a narrow ambulatory from the north. The tall chancel has an open timber roof above a prominent baldacchino, richly carved with neo-Gothic figures of Christ in Majesty, designed by Shearman and executed by Messrs. Burns and Oates. A 1922 crucifix by the Art and Book Company is housed within the baldacchino. Altar candlesticks and a sanctuary lamp were also designed by Shearman. The sanctuary is flanked by wooden statues of SS Silas and Peter, dating to 1917. The narrow ambulatory is arched with lancets, leading to a former mission church, built in 1884 and subsequently altered. A Lady Chapel is located in the south-east angle of the church, while St Thomas's Chapel, to the north of the altar, contains a painted reredos by Victoria Somerville. A spacious nave is complemented by an organ loft at the west end, housing an organ built by Bishop and Son in 1914.

The church’s origins lie in a mission church founded in 1884, with seating for 150 people. A legacy of £7,000 from an American, Howard Henry Paul, was intended for a proper church, but delays with his will, and subsequent loss of value in the bequest, meant construction did not begin until 1911, by which time the funds had dwindled to £4,000. The church retains a High Anglican tradition, reflecting the ideals of its founder, the Revd G Napier Whittingham. St Silas is considered Shearman's first and most significant church, exhibiting his distinctive brick Gothic style and a refined sense of space.