Chapel At Pembury Hospital

Chapel at Pembury Hospital

This hospital chapel was originally built as a workhouse chapel in 1863-1864. It was designed by Robert Wheeler of Brenchley, an architect active between 1856 and 1882, and is constructed in the Gothic style.

The building is made of polychrome brickwork in English bond, predominantly brown brick with red brick bands, combined with stone window dressings. It has a gabled tiled roof with terracotta ridge tiles.

The chapel is a rectangular structure aligned south-east to north-west, comprising a three-bay nave with aisles, two south-east porches positioned either side of a single-bay chancel, and a north-west bellcote.

On the south-east side, a central gable is crowned with a metal cross-shaped saddlestone. A large arched window features three trefoil-headed lights surmounted by a central cinquefoil light and two roundels. Recessed on either side are gabled porches with central arched openings flanked by sidelights and arched openings to the side walls, behind which are original arched wooden doors. The north-east and south-west sides have two small hipped dormers with wooden louvres and paired trefoil-headed windows. The north-west side contains a gabled bellcote with a trefoil-shaped bell opening, a central window with a quatrefoil above two trefoil-headed lights, and similar single trefoil lights to the aisles.

The interior walls are of red brick with black brick bands. A three-bay pointed arched arcade has stiff leaf stone capitals, granite columns, and deep brick bases. The roof is canted with tiebeams featuring quatrefoil mouldings to the spandrels. Most of the original wooden pews survive, with tiled flooring to the centre and aisles, metal floor grilles, and a small octagonal stone font.

The south-east window probably retains its original glass depicting Christ as the Good Shepherd, flanked by scenes appropriate to a workhouse: a baker giving bread to a pauper and a woman visiting the sick. The north-east central window contains two lights, one depicting St Vincent de Paul with two children in early 20th-century dress, the other St Luke. The north window of the south-west aisle depicts the Good Shepherd and was inserted after 1938 in memory of staff members and surgical staff of Pembury Hospital. The south-west aisle contains two windows considered by the hospital chaplain in 1956 to be by C E Kempe (1837-1907). These comprise the Virgin and Child, dedicated to Edith Mary Myles (1874-1957), the first President of the League of Friends and Headmistress of Tunbridge Wells County Grammar School, and the adjoining quatrefoil with an inscription of 1957 in memory of Philip Stewart Browning, a former hospital chaplain. A further stained glass window in the north-east aisle depicting the Baptism of Christ commemorates Amelia Scott with an inscription of 1955. The chapel contains a number of small wall plaques dedicated to people connected with the workhouse or hospital, including Thomas R McGill, Master of Tonbridge Workhouse between 1866 and 1893; John Francis Carter Braine, surgeon to the radiotherapy department 1939-1953; Ivor Elwyn Joseph Thomas, obstetrician and gynaecologist 1939-1953; and Constantine Lambrinudi, orthopaedic surgeon 1890-1943. The pipe organ at the west end of the eastern aisle is probably original.

Historical Context

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 prescribed that a Church of England chaplain should hold divine service at workhouses every Sunday. In the early days most boards did not set aside a dedicated room for use as a chapel but adapted a dining room for the purpose. From 1859 onwards, the Journal of the Workhouse Visiting Society advocated the erection of dedicated chapels, which were not usually consecrated but always licensed.

On 24 April 1863, Reverend Saint of Groombridge Place wrote to the Board of Guardians of Tonbridge Workhouse asking whether they would consider granting a sum from the rates for a separate room for public worship or a site for a building built by voluntary contributions. The Board agreed to this, providing it was under the control of the Guardians and used only for divine service. In June, the Committee specified that the building should be detached from the existing buildings, with the site as near as possible to the north-western corner. The building range should be parallel with the road and accommodate not fewer than 300 people. The partition for the separation of the sexes should be not less than 6 feet high, dividing the church longitudinally, with separate fenced entrances for males and females. The elevation should be as much in harmony as possible with the Fever Ward of the hospital. These resolutions were approved by the Poor Law Board on 14 July 1863. On 22 July, Robert Wheeler wrote to confirm he had taken these requirements into account and redrawn the plans, which were subsequently approved by the Poor Law Board.

The chapel was erected to the north-west of the Tonbridge Workhouse buildings, beside the workhouse laundry, and appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1868. The provision of two entrance porches, one for male paupers and one for female paupers, demonstrates the chapel's workhouse function. Although the Board of Guardians stipulated an internal screen for separation of the sexes, there is no evidence that this was built—by the 1860s such screens had gone out of fashion. The cost of the chapel was £650, with seating for 300. The workhouse capacity was 400, though Catholics and Non-conformists were permitted to attend their own place of worship if one was located nearby or to receive visits from their priest or minister.

On 10 September 1887, a contract was drawn up with Messrs. George and Frank Penn for £3,161 12 shillings, for the stripping, boarding, fitting and retiling the chapel and related works, as well as the taking down of the bell turret. The surveyor was William Oakley.

In 1938, Tonbridge Workhouse became Pembury Hospital, and the workhouse chapel became the hospital chapel.