Church Of St Martin And St Wilfrid

Church of St Martin and St Wilfrid

Anglican church built between 1872 and 1875, designed by George Somers Clarke Junior. The church was commissioned by the three sons of Reverend Henry Wagner in memory of their father. It is constructed in yellow brick laid in English bond with dressings of red brick, stone and terracotta, and has a tiled roof.

The building comprises a chancel and nave beneath a single roof, with north and south aisles, a south-west porch and a bellcote. All windows are pointed-arched with hoodmoulds. The plinth features a terracotta offset with red brick cornices throughout, and the cornice over the clerestory incorporates dentil work.

The east window contains five lights with Y-tracery in stone. Corner buttresses with multiple offsets terminate in octagonal pinnacles of red brick with stone finials. On the south-east side, a chapel flanks the choir and first bay of the sanctuary. At its western end stands a rounded stair turret with bands of red brick to the upper stages, small windows with trefoil tracery in terracotta, and a rounded hipped roof. The chapel contains two pairs of lancets and one additional lancet. The lean-to roof of the side chapel continues over the south aisle, which is otherwise blank except for a pointed-arched entrance with chamfered sub-order.

The nave and chancel have clerestories with 16 windows consisting of chamfered and sub-ordered lancets with hoodmoulds linked to form a string course. Red brick bands run at sill and springing level. The south-west porch is gabled with side buttresses and an elaborately sub-ordered arch framing a pair of pointed-arched entrances set back with an inner order of stone. The tympanum contains a corbelled terracotta panel of St Martin and the Beggar, modelled in high relief.

The west end is gabled with five closely-spaced lancets, the central one slightly wider, with a five-light composition of stepped lancets above. The whole is flanked by setback buttresses with multiple offsets terminating in pinnacles. The north aisle resembles the south aisle and has a sub-ordered west entrance. A war memorial dating from 1914-18 stands at the west end, comprising a gabled crucifix over an inscribed Portland stone panel in the form of a retable.

The interior walls are of brick, plastered, with dressings of brick and stone. The fittings were designed by Somers Clarke unless otherwise stated. A large wooden and gilded reredos extends across the full width of the chancel, featuring piers of saints in niches and painted panels depicting the ancient and modern church, with substantial pinnaclework to the top. Designed around 1875, it was made by JE Knox of Lambeth, with figures modelled by Josef Mayer of Oberammergau and paintings by H Ellis Wooldridge.

Pairs of deep, sub-ordered arches flank the chancel in the second bay, with galleries above. The south gallery housed a military band and the north gallery housed the Hill organ. A deep clerestory arcade with passage aisles runs through the building, except where occupied by the organ. The roof is of brick with stone ribs, featuring brick sub-ordered arches between sanctuary and choir and between chancel and nave. A low wall of sandstone with marble coping and wrought-iron gates separates the chancel from the nave, serving as a military memorial commemorating campaigns in Egypt dating to around 1885. A rood beam dating from around 1875 has figures of slightly later date.

The nave arcade consists of octagonal stone columns with roll-moulded capitals and pointed, sub-ordered brick arches. The clerestory takes the form of pointed arches with passage aisles, shallower than those in the chancel. Corbel shafts rise over each column of the arcade. The nave has a wooden wagon roof in panels, painted with the coats of arms of British and American bishops. Both aisles are roofed with lean-to roofs. Buttresses at the crossing reflect plans for a saddleback tower.

An octagonal pulpit of 1881, designed by Somers Clarke Junior and paid for by Henry Wagner, was made by JE Knox of Lambeth apart from the side panels, which were carved by Trollope and Sons. It is constructed of oak on a plinth of Sussex marble, carried on an ogee arcade. The side panels are carved with New Testament scenes. The sounding board features brattishing and a high openwork spire of three stages above.

An octagonal font of grey marble has the bowl carried on clustered columns. An elaborate canopy on four columns, in the manner of St Peter Mancroft, forms the font cover. A reredos in the south-east chapel combines mixed Baroque and Gothic design.

A war memorial in the first bay of the south aisle comprises a lower, panelled section commemorating those who fell in the First World War, and above it a panel of around 1882 commemorating the Egyptian campaigns. The memorial was designed by Somers Clarke Junior, with tiles executed by Simpson and Co, panelling and woodwork by Lynn and Sons of Brighton, and carving by JE Knox of Lambeth. Memorial tablets flanking the chancel commemorate Henry Michell Wagner, Arthur Wagner and Henry Wagner.

Stained glass includes an east window of 1874 designed by HE Wooldridge and made by Powell and Co. Small windows in the south-east chapel and at the west end of the south aisle date to 1875, designed by Henry Holiday and made by Powell and Co. The clerestory windows on the south side of the chancel commemorate four other Brighton churches built by Arthur Wagner.

The church served as the garrison church for Preston Barracks nearby, and its fittings and memorials reflect this history.

The church is surrounded by low boundary walls to the west and south, constructed of flint and cobbles with dressings and coping of red brick. Brick gate piers to the centre of the south wall have been rebuilt.