Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul, Staplers Road

This is a Neo-Romanesque stone church built in 1844 by the architect James William Wild (1814–1892). A porch was added to the west in 1903, and a kitchen and toilet extension was constructed in the early 1990s.

The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with tooled ashlar dressings, with a slate roof except for the stone spire. The plan consists of an apsidal nave with north and south aisles, and a south-west tower with spire and west porch.

The exterior displays the Neo-Romanesque style throughout. The nave and aisles are defined by a wide stone cornice of corbels. The windows are round-headed with square abaci and leaded lights, separated by buttresses, and sit above a deep plinth. The south-west tower comprises three stages and is crowned with a pyramidal stone spire. The bell stage (top) features paired round-headed openings with colonnettes and wooden louvres. The middle and lower stages have clasped buttresses; the middle stage contains a round-headed window, while the lower stage has a large round-headed arched doorcase with square abaci, a Caernarvon arch, and a plank door with fleur de lys hinges. The west gable end is topped with a cross-shaped saddlestone and quatrefoil near the apex, beneath which are three round-headed windows linked by a dripmould. The 1903 west porch is built of ashlar with a tiled roof, incised bargeboards, and a Tudor style plank doorcase with elaborate hinges. Behind the porch is a roll-moulded round-headed arch with colonnettes topped by cushion capitals. The 1990s addition at the south-west end is in Classical style, built on a stone rubble plinth with ashlar above; its west side has a pediment and round-headed window with keystone.

The interior contains a four-bay nave with an arcade of round-headed roll-moulded arches with corbel heads, supported on slender circular piers with square abaci. The apse features a plastered semi-dome painted with a firmament and blind arcading below. The wooden roof has tie beams supported on wooden corbels, collar beams, purlins and ridgepiece to the rafters.

The principal fixtures include three stained glass windows in the apse dating from circa 1844–50, depicting Faith, Hope and Charity and derived from designs by Sir Joshua Reynolds at New College, Oxford. The west window dates to 1897 and was created by C E Kempe, depicting St Peter, St George and St John over Resurrection scenes. The south aisle contains a 1896 stained glass window and a marble wall war memorial. The north aisle holds a monument to the Reverend W H Nutter, who died in 1909—an elaborate wall monument in veined marble with a heavy scrolled broken pediment and fluted Ionic pilasters. The church also contains an octagonal wooden pulpit and an early twentieth-century stone font with circular bowl on chamfered base and wooden cover with carved cross.

The churchyard wall is contemporary with the church, constructed of coursed limestone rubble with ashlar coping and incorporating two stone gate piers with cast iron gates and a cast iron overthrow with lamp.

James William Wild was articled to George Basevi in 1830 and elected an associate of the RIBA in 1837. His church masterpiece was Christ Church, Streatham (1841), which fused Early Christian, Italian Romanesque, Islamic and Moorish elements with great originality. Like his earlier work, St Paul's features lower aisles and an apsidal end, though the tower with spire is lower and integrated with the nave rather than standing as a separate campanile.