Church Of St Dunstan

Church of St Dunstan, Cheam

Built between 1862 and 1864 to designs by Frederick Pownall and William Young, with a spire added by Carpenter and Ingelow in 1870, this is a Gothic Revival church modelled on 13th-century architecture. The building is constructed of rock-faced ragstone rubble with limestone dressings and Welsh slate roofs.

The church comprises a five-bay nave with north and south aisles, a northwest tower, a north double-bay transept, a south porch, a three-sided apsidal chancel, north vestries, and a south chapel. The most dominant feature is the northwest steeple, which acts as a landmark visible across a wide area. The tower has four stages with clasping buttresses, the northwest one incorporating a stair terminating in an octagonal stone cap. The lowest stage contains a two-light window on the north side and a doorway to the west squeezed between the tower stair and southwest buttress. The belfry windows are of two lights with a central shaft and a quatrefoil in the head. The spire is of broach type with large lucarnes low down in the cardinal directions, followed by two further small tiers—first in alternating directions, then near the top in the cardinal directions again. At the west end of the nave sits a large wheel window with eight divisions set above four equal-height lancets. Between the nave and aisles runs a shallow band of walling carrying a series of five cinquefoiled clerestory windows. The aisles and chapel have pairs of lancet windows on their side elevations. The north side features twin gables of a shallow double transept, each with a two-light window and quatrefoil in the head. A flat-roofed block was added north of the vestry around 1970. The chancel is lower and narrower than the nave and ends in a three-sided apse.

The interior is dominated by a striking polychromatic treatment using exposed red brick enlivened with black bands and, in the nave below the clerestory, a frieze of black-brick zigzag patterns. The chancel has been plastered and whitened. The arcade arches, which have a chamfer and plain step, are also treated polychromatically with red brick alternating with limestone. The arcade piers are round with shallow capitals displaying very prominent foliage projecting beyond the abaci. The chancel arch follows the same pattern as the nave arches but with the addition of black-brick detailing. The nave roof trusses have a collar with scissor-bracing above, with longitudinal boarding infill. The chancel roof is arched with delicate stencilled decoration of stars and stylised flowers on bare boards. The aisle roofs are plain lean-tos.

The most striking interior feature is the treatment of the east end of the sanctuary. A tripartite alabaster reredos depicts the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes, probably dating from the church's opening or shortly afterwards. The walls flanking it are lined with tiles: an upper frieze shows angels bearing texts, below which runs a series of vertical rich blue patterned tiles commemorating a death in 1895. The double sedilia have 13th-century-style trefoiled heads to the seats under gabled tops, with angels from the 1895 scheme at the seat heads. The pewing is largely complete, likely from around 1866, with shaped ends and elbows. The pulpit and chancel furnishings date from the 20th century. The nave and aisles feature ornamented cast-iron grilles over heating ducts set among red and cream tile floor tiles. The font is a square bowl bearing the IHS monogram, set on stubby shafts with stiff-leaf foliage. The south chapel appears to have been refurnished as a World War One memorial. The west lancets contain glass of 1872 by Clayton and Bell, while the transept and aisles have four windows by Kempe and Co dating from between 1909 and 1928.

South of the church stands the partly medieval flint-and-brick Lumley chapel, separately listed at Grade II*. This preserves the east end of the chancel of the old church, serving as a sepulchral chapel and repository for brasses and monuments from the demolished structure. At the southwest corner of the churchyard is an attractive half-timbered lych-gate of 1891, set on a brick, flint and stone plinth with rendered infill panels prettily decorated with trails of flowers and fruit.

Church plans were drawn up by mid-1862. Consecration took place on 17 November 1864 when there were 606 seats, 184 being free for poorer inhabitants. What is now the south chapel originally had seats facing north, evidently intended for children's use. The exterior is a well-composed Early English Gothic structure, and the interior is notably striking thanks to vibrant polychromatic treatment, though the later plastering of the chancel is regrettable. The decoration of the chancel roof and the treatment of the sanctuary walls are of considerable distinction.

Frederick Hyde Pownall (1832–1907) was a London architect articled by Samuel Daukes, and partner to William Young (died 1877), later becoming County Surveyor of Middlesex from 1888. Richard Herbert Carpenter (1841–93) was the son of the important early Victorian church architect R. C. Carpenter, who died young in 1855. The elder Carpenter's practice was taken over by William Slater, who was joined as a partner by Carpenter junior in 1863. On Slater's death in 1872, Carpenter took on Benjamin Ingelow (died 1925), who had been an improver and assistant to Slater, as a partner.