Church Of St Dunstan

Church of St Dunstan, Feltham

A church has stood at Feltham since the twelfth century, when it was granted to the Hospital of Giles in the Fields. The medieval church was entirely rebuilt in 1802 to designs by William Walker, a builder and surveyor from Chertsey in Surrey, who also designed the church at Ashford in Middlesex. The 1802 structure comprises the present nave, chancel and west tower. In 1854 to 1857, north and south aisles were added to designs by Francis Byass of London, who also "Normanised" the church with neo-Norman elements.

Exterior

The building retains a strongly Georgian character despite the later neo-Norman additions. It is constructed of stock brick with slate roofs and a shingled spire, with stone dressings applied to the 1850s work.

The west tower of 1802 is a three-stage structure with an embattled parapet and octagonal shingled spire. The tower porch has a west doorway of two plain round-headed arches and a two-leaf door with flush panels, with matching blind recesses on the north and south faces. The belfry windows are round-headed with louvers in all faces, the west window containing a large clock face in the head. A small round-headed west window with spoke glazing bars in the head is accompanied by blind windows to north and south.

The nave and chancel of 1802 have deep soffits to their roofs, with the east gable treated as an open pediment. Round-headed openings with lighter brick voussoirs are a feature of the chancel and tower. The chancel contains tall round-headed windows to north and south and a Venetian east window. A small, boxy east vestry projects below the east window.

The aisles added in 1854 to 1857 are executed in neo-Norman style with eaves bands and corbels. They feature paired round-headed windows with a single order of incised chevron carving carried on detached shafts with cushion capitals and small buttresses with stone dressings. Small round paired clerestory windows are probably also of the 1850s. The southeast door is neo-Romanesque in style, with a shallow gabled porch and a diagonally boarded door.

Interior

The interior is plastered and painted. The Venetian east window has internal shafts and roundels with plaster roses above the flanking lights.

The nave and chancel have a flat plaster ceiling with 1802 plasterwork including an acanthus ceiling frieze and a deep reeded wall frieze decorated with husk ornament and enriched with pairs of cherub heads and Hebrew monograms in sunbursts. A central ceiling motif of a dove is featured. The cornice in the nave is partly broken by the clerestory windows.

The west gallery of 1802 is a good example of its period, with fluted Doric columns and a panelled front bearing a bold inscription of 1802 recording the construction of the church, and smaller inscriptions of the 1850s recording its enlargement. The gallery stair in the west lobby has turned balusters with stick balusters to the gallery above the lobby. The three-bay north and south arcades of 1854 to 1857 have round, chamfered arches on simple Doric capitals. The cylindrical piers are marbled in Georgian style, an unusually late example of such treatment.

Fixtures and Fittings

Black and white tiles, probably of 1802, are laid in the sanctuary; the remainder of the floor is carpeted but is said to preserve at least one 18th-century floor slab. Box pews, panelling and a reredos were removed in the 1950s in favour of chairs. Fielded panelling of the 1950s has been placed behind the altar, alongside a small wooden font of the same period.

The east window is an interesting work by O'Connor in Renaissance style, probably of the 1850s or 1860s, depicting the Good Shepherd in the central panel with texts in the flanking panels, including grisaille heads of the evangelists. A north chancel window of stamped quarries is dated 1884. Late 19th and early 20th-century glass appears in the aisles.

The chancel contains a scrolled marble cartouche to Nathaniel Crewe, died 1688/9, reset from the old church. There are also numerous other wall tablets, mostly of the 19th century, and a marble bust now in the gallery. A 13th-century floor slab remains loose in the tower.

Setting

High stock brick walls in the churchyard may also date to the early 19th century.