Church Of St Stephen

St Stephen's Church is a parish church designed in 1874 by Richard Mawson of the renowned Bradford firm Lockwood and Mawson, following a limited competition. The building was completed in 1907 and exemplifies the eclectic early Decorated Gothic style typical of the later 19th century.

Construction and Materials

The church is built of Kentish ragstone with stone dressings. The roofs are slate, some with red tile banding and tile ridges. The chancel has a distinctive pierced iron ridge cresting.

Plan and Layout

The church is oriented unusually, with the liturgical west end actually facing south. The building comprises a single bay adjacent to the tower at the liturgical west end, leading to a four-bay aisled nave with transepts and a short chancel under a lower roof. All elements are aligned north to south. A tall square tower stands at the south-west angle, with a smaller flat-roofed round turret slightly set back at the south-east angle. The vestry (known as the Ark Room) lies to the north-west of the chancel, and the organ chamber to the east. The main entrance is at the south (liturgical west) end, with a secondary roadside entrance into the west face of the tower.

Exterior Description

Tower

At the south (liturgical west) end rises a tall three-stage tower with slender set-back buttresses that emphasize its height. Similar buttresses mark the angles of the nave. The base of the tower features a two-light window with slender tracery. On the roadside elevation, the entrance sits under a pointed canopy with an entwined foliate tympanum. A pair of shafts with foliate capitals support a broad flat moulded arch. Within the tympanum, a vesica contains palm leaves flanked by foliate panels. The doors are of vertical boards with ornate foliate hinges. The second stage is simply treated with a pair of narrow vents on two faces, beneath three-light louvred openings on each face of the belfry stage. Tall faceted pinnacles at the angles are linked by a tall parapet with an open arcade over a trefoil frieze.

West Entrance

The west entrance to the nave is set under a cranked canopy which continues as a moulded band over five flush lancet windows flanking the entrance. In the gable is an encircled trefoil. A tall, almost Byzantine arch is supported on single shafts, each with a foliate capital. The tympanum contains a vesica with crossed palm leaves, flanked by foliate panels. The pair of vertically boarded doors have rich foliate hinges which differ from those on the tower entrance.

Windows and Elevations

The west window of the nave consists of six paired lights under a large ten-foiled light, flanked by smaller five-foiled lights, all with slender tracery and under a simple hoodmould which continues across the face of the building. Above are three flush vents, and at the gable a robust cross. Set back between the west front and the south aisle is a round tower with a flat or truncated roof. A moulded doorway set in the curve has a vertically boarded door with foliate hinges. Narrow stair lights rise up the tower, which is capped by a deep band with encircled quatrefoil panels.

The nave has paired lancet aisle windows with foliate capitals to a central shaft. Those on the north vary; those on the south are of the same design. Hoodmoulds have foliate bosses, some damaged or missing. Single cusped clerestory windows are set in flush stone surrounds.

Transepts and Chancel

The north and south buttressed transepts have four-light windows, the lights paired either side of a central shaft and under a large foiled light. Each transept has a small moulded arched doorway with a vertically boarded door on the south face. The south (liturgical) transept has a stone stack.

The chancel is canted at the east end. Each three-light window has different tracery and each is set under a gablet. The roof has a slender iron ridge cresting and delicate iron cross. A small organ chamber with upper lights sits between the south (liturgical) transept and chancel.

The vestry (Ark Room) has a north-facing canted bay with rectangular stone mullion and transom windows in flush surrounds. The west elevation has a three-light mullion and transom window with slender bars, the upper element curved, in a flush stone surround and resting on a continuous storey band. Below is a four-centred arched moulded stone doorway with a pair of vertically boarded doors with foliate iron hinges.

Interior

The interior is lined in stock brick picked out with horizontal bands of red brick at sill and impost levels. The nave piers are quatrefoil in plan with square bases and capitals. Opposing piers have shafts with similar foliate capitals based on flowers and fruits from the garden of the first people's warden, Henry Little. At the bases of the arcade hoodmould between the piers are figures of Protestant reformers.

The roof is of hammerbeam construction, with wall posts resting on carved corbels. The aisle roofs are braced from the piers, all above a pierced quatrefoil frieze. Aisle windows are recessed in flush stone surrounds under flush brick arches.

A wide chancel arch and similar transept arches have paired shafts with foliate capitals supporting a flat moulded arch. The shallow chancel has been reordered, with the choir stalls removed and the floor raised and extended to house a baptistry. These alterations are not of special interest.

The liturgical south transept and chancel have a plainer arch to the organ chamber which houses the Willis organ, installed in 1889. In front of the chancel arch stands an octagonal stone pulpit with coloured alabaster shafts (the steps were removed during the reordering). To the left is a polished marble base dated 1910 supporting a brass handrail and brass eagle lectern. Before the screen was built, the lectern was set forward from the chancel arch.

The angles of the sanctuary are marked by slender stone shafts which support long arched roof braces. The sanctuary is lined in traceried timber panels with built-in sedilia and a water stoup. A tall stone reredos with a mosaic triptych stands behind an altar table with similar traceried panels. The altar rail is of brass panels with a moulded oak rail. The floor is of black, grey and white marble.

The vestry (Ark Room) has inner doors of four panels with chamfered stiles and muntins, and is lined with cupboards with similar doors. A narrow doorway leads to the chancel. This and the door to the transept have vertical boards and foliate iron hinges.

The stained glass windows are mostly by A O Hemming, a descendant of two ministers of the Montpelier Chapel, and are dedicated to members of the community.

Lychgate

To the south of the church at the apex of the site is a timber-framed lychgate with gates having pierced trefoil panels, under a wide splayed roof of alternating bands of plain and fishscale slate.

Historical Development

The church of St Stephen was built to serve the growing population of east Twickenham. Following a limited competition held in 1874, the contract was won by Richard Mawson of the renowned Bradford firm Lockwood and Mawson. The terms of the competition required a large cost-effective building but above all one which 'should be made to look as aesthetic as possible'. Drawings by R W Edis and Raphael Brandon, illustrated in the Architect and Building News, give comparative examples of the response to the brief, each with an immensely tall tower.

The foundations of the whole church were laid out by the end of 1875, but work proceeded gradually, starting with the nave and chancel which were completed by 1883-4. In 1885 the south transept and organ chamber were consecrated, the north transept following in 1893. The tower was completed in 1907. The 1896 Ordnance Survey map matches the current footprint but omits the circular turret.

A chancel screen by G H Fellowes-Prynne was added between 1905 and 1911 (the plinth to the adjoining lectern is dated 1910), but the screen was removed during the late 1990s when the chancel was altered. The choir stalls were removed and a baptistry installed beneath the staging. At the same time the nave floor was replaced and the pews removed. In 1975 the Centenary Room was inserted at the west end of the nave. Early photographs of the church show the interior before the chancel screen was built, with it in situ, and the nave before reordering.

The Architects

The firm of Lockwood and Mawson are best known for their work for the philanthropic mill owner Sir Titus Salt. They supplied the plan for Saltaire and were responsible for most of the domestic, civic and industrial buildings built between 1850 and 1876, including the Grade I Congregational church of 1859. In Bradford they built the Wool Exchange (1864) and Town Hall (1869), both Grade I. Other ecclesiastical works include the United Reformed Churches of St Andrew Scarborough (1864-8) and Providence Place, Cleckheaton (1857-90), both Grade II*. In 1874 Lockwood moved to London, where he completed City Temple (1873-4) and Civil Service Stores (1876-7). Richard Mawson is recorded as having a London office from 1868.

Significance

The church is a well-composed example of a suburban church in southern England by a notable practice whose work is particularly associated with civic, philanthropic and nonconformist buildings in West Yorkshire. It provides a well-documented account of suburban expansion in the later 19th century. The setting and proportions of the church contribute strongly to the streetscape.