Church of the Good Shepherd

Church of the Good Shepherd

An Anglican church on Dyke Road, Preston, Brighton. The foundation stone at the west end is dated 1920, and several rainwater heads carry the date 1922; the east end was extended in 1927. The building was designed by Edward Prioleau Warren and built at the expense of Alice Mary Moor in memory of her husband Gerald Henry Moor, Vicar of Preston. It is constructed of brown brick with dressings of stone and concrete, and has a tiled roof.

The building comprises a chancel and nave under one roof, with a south-east chapel, north-east vestry and chapel, north-west porch, and south-west tower (all directions are ritual).

The east end features a 5-light window under a 4-centred arch with one transom, with lower panels blank and upper lancets that are trefoiled and plain alternately. The south-east chapel has a 3-light east window under a cross gable. The vestry and north-east chapel are parapeted and gabled to the west. The sides feature four aisle windows to either side, formed of 3 and 5 plain lancets alternately with buttresses between, and a number detailed in concrete. There is one broad hipped dormer to each side and a deep bellcast to the roof over the aisles. A gabled north-west porch is present.

The west end displays 5 stepped lancets detailed in concrete under a segmental pointed arch of 3 courses of stepped brickwork, and a statue of the Good Shepherd in an ogee niche in the apex of the gable.

The south-west tower has a pointed-arched porch with engaged columns, hollow-moulded archivolt and hoodmould. It features clasping buttresses with 2 offsets and a polygonal stair tower at the south-west corner. A deep offset rises above the ground floor. The first-floor windows are flat-arched pairs with pairs of narrow lancets above. Another offset leads to the bellstage with 2 pairs of lancets linked by a single hoodmould. A cornice and embattled parapet crown the tower, with a copper fleche and weather vane above.

Inside, the walls and interior surfaces are of brick, plastered. The nave and chancel are under a single roof, with the sanctuary, choir and nave distinguished only by steps and by a rood beam between nave and chancel. The nave arcade comprises 5 bays with square piers carrying low, slightly chamfered pointed arches, with passage aisles with stone lintels running out from the piers, carved with an ogee moulding on each face. The panelled roof is jettied out slightly from the chancel and more from the nave. The nave coving is decorated with shields carrying emblems of the Passion. The vertical ribs and ridge of the roof are decorated with coloured banding in the style of GF Bodley, and the easternmost bay is decorated with sacred emblems. The south-east chapel has a similar, simpler roof and a reredos in late Gothic style, possibly by WHR Blacking, with a painted triptych signed with the monogram HRM. There are 2 stained-glass windows in the south-east chapel by Ward and Hughes, and the chancel east window possibly by the same firm. A gilded organ case in a late Gothic style by WHR Blacking is present.