Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

Anglican parish church on Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth. Built in 1894 to designs by GH Fellowes-Prynne at a cost of approximately £5,267, with a chapel extension added in 1903. The church is constructed of squared and snecked rock-faced masonry with limestone dressings, set on a continuous plinth and roofed in bright red tiles.

The plan comprises a nave with a western baptistery, aisles contained under a swept-down main roof, a southern porch, double-gabled southern transept, apsidal southern chapel, chancel, organ gallery and vestries. The main roof ridge features a twin-gabled bellcote.

The architectural detail combines Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic with Art Nouveau overtones, particularly evident in the tracery and cusping. The western gable is coped with a terminal cross and kneelers, featuring a 4-light window above the apsidal baptistery (which has a hipped roof behind a high coped parapet) and 7 cusped lancets. The nave has square buttresses and the aisles have diagonal buttresses, with 3-light western windows. Aisle windows are of 1 and 2-lights to square heads. The southern porch has a gabled roof with paired plank gates to grillage upper panels and small quatrefoil side lights, flanked by a single light to the left and 2+2+1-lights to the right. The transept displays coped gables over 4-light windows and a plank door on the western side. The lower apsidal chapel to the right has 5 cusped lancets, with a flush foundation stone dated 29 April 1903 at its eastern end. Between nave and chancel stands the bellcote, topped by a raised coped gable with heavy haunched gablets on north and south sides. The chancel features 3 lights set high, and a lofty eastern gable with coping and terminal cross over a 5-light window with label and stops; below the glazed section is stone panelling with 5 plain shields. Diagonal corner buttresses and a central squat buttress with a commemorative stone bearing an inscription dated 9 May 1894 inscribed with the names of Alice Countess Hoyes, Reverend Sydney Lambert, HG Fellowes-Prynne and Cephas Foad. To the right are 2 later flat-roofed extensions, and the high gabled organ loft and vestry. The northern aisle spans 7 bays with square buttresses.

The interior has plain plastered and painted walls. The 4-bay nave is spanned by broad pointed moulded arches on octagonal piers with high bases and crenellated caps, with small extra pointed openings at the western end on each side. The trussed rafter roof features an embellished plate with light arch-bracing to the bays, carried on attached shafts and corbels. The aisles have lean-to roofs, hipped at the western end, with windows in deep embrasures to flat segmental rere-arches. The inner porch doors are plain plank under a segmental head. Floors are laid in plain clay tiles, with wood block in the seating areas. At the western end of the nave is a broad flat 4-centred arch on splayed and stopped jambs opening to the baptistery, which has a joist ceiling and mosaic floor; the single lancets are in deep embrasures. At the eastern end of the northern aisle is a flying half arch to the organ chamber, and a similar arch provides access to the southern transept, which has a deep valley beam continuing across to one of the nave piers with a traceried section. The chapel has a rafter roof with flat central section and short canted sides. The chancel, raised on 4+2 steps, has a low stone screen with wrought-iron gates and cresting, and Minton tiled floors. The roof structure matches that of the nave. Three lights are set high on each side of the sanctuary, which is raised a further 3 steps and features a fine carved and gilded reredos flanked by panelling. To the south are 3 narrow arches on paired round columns leading to the chapel, and to the north is a wide segmental arch over the organ.

Fittings include a carved wood pulpit on a stone base, brass eagle lectern, simple turned baluster altar rail, and a limestone octagonal font on a quatri-lobed base. The font bowl displays sunk panels with figures or leaves in Art Nouveau style.

The stained glass is notable: the eastern window depicts the King of Kings, the western window shows the Ascension, and the southern chapel and baptistery contain a series of saints. The southern aisle windows feature coloured glass, while the transept and northern aisle feature Art Nouveau leading without coloured glass.

The church represents an idiosyncratic yet convincing design, well maintained, built for an area experiencing rapid expansion at the turn of the twentieth century.