St Peter's Church
St Peter's Church is a former Church of England church of late 19th century origin at the Grove. Designed by Major-General Sir Edmund Du Cane, St Peter's was built in 1870-72 and ceased religious use in 1988. It has been a Grade II* listed building since September 1978. At the same time, the adjacent vicarage, and the church's northern and western gate piers and boundary walls, became Grade II listed as well.
As most residents of the Grove were prison staff and their families, St Peter's had a long association with the prison. It also served as the garrison church for the regiments stationed at the Verne Citadel into the 1930s.
History
Plans for and establishment of St Peter's Church
St Peter's was built to serve the residents of the Grove, which developed as a village with the opening of Portland Prison in 1848. The prison was established following the government's approval of plans for the transformation of Portland Roads into a harbour of refuge in 1847. In order to supply the stone required for the breakwaters and other associated works, the prison provided convict labour for the Admiralty Quarries.
The opening of the prison saw the Grove develop into a village, with the population reaching 1,100 by 1870. As Portland's overall population saw a dramatic increase, the churches of the island became insufficient. In particular, residents at the Grove, most of whom were prison staff and their families, felt poorly served as Portland's parish church, St George's, was over a mile away and many opted to attend services at the prison chapel instead. In response, Reverend Arthur Hill, the prison's chaplain, established a movement in 1868 to have a church built at the Grove. He formed a building committee, which included the prison's governor, two assistant governors, a number of officers, as well as Portland's rector, Rev. David Hogarth. Meanwhile, Rev. Hill also fought for a new school building for the Portland Prison Officers' School, which had become insufficient to serve the village's children.
The committee's appeal for a church received strong support and by July 1870, £1,863 of the estimated £2,681 expenditure towards the new church had been raised through subscriptions, donations and grants from various individuals and bodies, including £200 from the Salisbury Diocesan Church Building Society. A disused plot of land within the Admiralty Quarries, valued at £400, was donated to the committee by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, which was soon extended to include space for a new school as well. The plans for the church were drawn up by Captain Edmund Du Cane of the Royal Engineers (later Major-General Sir Edmund Du Cane), who presented them as a gift. At the time, Captain Du Cane was serving as the director of convict prisons and an inspector of military prisons.
Construction of St Peter's began in mid-1870, with the majority of it being built by convict labour, which was authorised by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The work was supervised by Mr. J. Rhodes, clerk of the works, with Mr. J. Latimer as foreman of works and Mr. G. Waters as the engineer. All of the building stone was sourced from the adjacent convict-operated quarries and supplied at a royalty per ton. The cost of materials amounted to an approximate £1,400. The required timber was purchased from Mr. C. Gibbs of Portland, the ironwork from Mr. J. Russell of Weymouth and the glass from Messrs. John Hall and Son of Broadmead.
St Peter's was completed on 26 August 1872 and consecrated on the following day by the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Rev. George Moberley. Over 600 people attended the consecration, which included the Archdeacon of Dorset, Thomas Sanctuary, and 30 members of the clergy. On the day, the church choir was joined by sailors of the boys' training ship HMS Boscawen. In addition to St Peter's, the new prison officers' school (and its associated headmaster's residence) was also completed and opened in 1872. In January 1874, following a concert held at St Peter's, a public tea at the nearby school saw Rev. Hill presented with a testimonial, on behalf of the Grove community, for his efforts in having the church and school erected.
20th century use of the church and eventual closure in 1988
In 1909, a new organ, built by Messrs. Norman and Beard of Norwich at a cost of £300, was installed in the church. In 1933, the Church of England united the parishes of St Peter's and All Saints', with St Peter's Church becoming a chapel of ease. The church was temporarily closed after receiving extensive bomb damage to its roof during an air raid in April 1941, but temporary repairs allowed it to reopen again later in the year. After World War II, the church continued to be used by military forces, mainly the Royal Navy, until church parades ceased to be mandatory in 1951.
As a result of declining congregation numbers, St Peter's was formally declared redundant by the Church of England on 31 May 1973. It was then used as a private chapel for the prison, which had been a Borstal Institution since 1921. During this period, the church's parish communion service, held each Sunday, was regularly attended by residents, prison staff families and borstal boys. The nearby Grove Infant School also made use the church during this time. In 1988, the prison, which became a Young Offenders Institution that year, ceased using St Peter's. The church fell into disuse over the following decade, but remained under the ownership of the prison service.
21st century use
During 2001-03, the church was maintained by a small group of volunteers which allowed it to be opened to the public. Being surplus to the requirements of HM Prison Service, it was put up for sale by informal tender in October 2003 through the Weymouth estate agent Palmer Snell. By this time, the church was in need of major repair work. As the building fell under planning class D1, its use was restricted to non-residential purposes only.
Local businessman Gary Nash became the new owner on 20 December 2004, having purchased the church for an undisclosed fee from the Home Office and Church Commissioners. Nash's vision for the church was to have it used by the community and re-licensed to perform weddings there. During 2005, he had the church grounds restored and toilets installed in an adjoining outbuilding, but the church remained largely unused. In July 2006, and again in July 2007, the church hosted a contemporary art exhibition by South West Art Work. At the time, the group expressed interest in using the church on a more permanent basis for the benefit of the community. A few years later, Nash placed the church on the market through the estate agents Hull Gregson Hull. It sold around 2014 for £100,000 under the condition of being used for "monument or ancillary purposes" only.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the church has been listed on English Heritage's "Heritage at Risk" register. Later in 2007, the organisation described the church as being "in poor condition" with "structural problems". Historic England surveyed the building in 2015 and reported: "Vulnerability increased by period of ownership by a scrap merchant. Relatively complete interior of interest as an undivided space and with robust contemporary fittings. Council in discussions with current owners". With no resolution agreed, the church's condition has continued to decline. In the latest "Heritage at Risk" entry, Historic England record that the local authority is "considering taking action against [the] owner".
Design
St Peter's is built in the Romanesque style and was designed to accommodate 522 people. The architect Captain Edmund Du Cane would later design the prison chapel at London's HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs, which was largely completed by 1889 and is architecturally similar to St Peter's. St Peter's is built of Portland stone, with the slate for its roof sourced from Penmoyle Quarry in Cornwall and Whitland Abbey Quarry in Wales. The church has a cruciform plan and is made up of a three-bay nave, chancel, north and south transepts, lean-to vestry and narthex. The chancel and transepts have a semi-circular shape. A bellcote containing a single bell sits on the west side of the building. A doorway leading into the north transept was originally used by garrisons of the Verne Citadel, while the south transept contains the organ.
The church's windows are mainly of semi-circular design with plain glass. Following bomb damage in 1940, one window was replaced the following year and is dedicated to the memory of Bandmaster J. Tyson and men of the Dorset Regiment killed in action. The west end of the church contains a wheel window. Below is the narthex which has seven arched windows, separated by doubled colonnettes. Of the nine early 20th century stained-glass windows in the chancel, one is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Hill. The west window is in memory of Mr. Rhodes, a former clerk of prison works. The most recent two of the chancel windows were installed in July 1921 and dedicated on 17 July.
The octagonal pulpit, font and lectern were all carved by convicts from Portland basebed stone. The lectern has an unusual hexagonal base and its desk is made from wainscot oak. The open-timbered roof of the church was designed with hammerbeams and arched braces. Using wood sourced from Riga, Latvia, the timber is held in place using wooden pegs, tongued and grooved, rather than nails. The wood used for the pews is also of Riga deal, stained and varnished, and the flooring of the nave and transepts made up of Riga battens.
A notable feature inside St Peter's is the mosaic work in the porch and sanctuary areas. These were made by female convicts, including Constance Kent, a female prisoner serving life imprisonment at HM Prison Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, for murder. During this period, Kent was producing mosaics for various other churches too, including St Paul's Cathedral in London, Bishop's Chapel in Chichester and St Swithun's Church in East Grinstead. Aside from the two original mosaic features, the church also features some later Byzantine-styled mosaic panels of the Four Evangelists in the reredos, which were dedicated to the memory of a churchwarden. Also in the reredos is a tablet listing the various regiments that served at the Verne Citadel from 1873 to 1937. The original tablet was unveiled by General Sir Alexander J. Godley in April 1925, after Rev. Herbert Pentin had the idea of commemorating those of the Verne who had used the church for worship.
In the 1972 book The Buildings of England: Dorset, authors John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner commented: "St Peter is in its own way as surprising and as bold in scale as St George Reforne, Easton." Eric Ricketts, in his 1979 book Old Buildings of Portland, noted: "Quite continental in its Romanesque conception, it is perhaps the technical quality of its construction which takes the eye rather than the design of the details. One believes that the convicts enjoyed building this church. St Peter's is a worthy successor to St George, Reforne." In her 1986 book Dorset: The Complete Guide, Jo Draper described the church as "not exactly pretty, but rather impressive." The church is summarised by Historic England as being executed in a "vigorous Lombardic Romanesque style".
Vicarage
In around 1886, a building fund was established by the church's then-vicar, Rev. Josiah Meigh, to raise funds for the erection of a purpose-built vicarage for St Peter's. Various subscriptions were received, including from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Bishop Burgess' Church Union Society and the Poor Benefice Augmentation Society, while the Admiralty donated the required plot of land and offered a reduced rate for the building stone. The vicarage was built in 1890-91 by Messrs. Conway and Waight of Portland to the designs of the Weymouth architect Samuel Jackson.
Parish room
In 1906, a parish room for St Peter's was established a short distance north-west of the church through the efforts of the then-vicar, Rev. L. Mason. A successful appeal was launched to raise funds for the room in late 1905. Two iron huts were soon purchased from Messrs Hill & Company of Gosport, who carried out a number of government works in the area during that period. The two huts were altered to form one large room and it was then erected by Mr. William Comben on land belonging to the Admiralty. The opening ceremony and dedication service was performed by Rev. Chas Askwith of St Mary's, Weymouth, on 21 July 1906, in the presence of around 200 people. The room, which was capable of accommodating around 300 people, remained in use into the 1950s and was subsequently demolished.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) A Short History of St. Peter's Church Portland - Lithopress (Weymouth) Company - leaflet
2) Ancestry.com - Genealogy - Portland Year Book 1905: St Peter's Church, The Grove - Paul Benyon - website page
3) Do You Remember? - Portland's War - Part 2 - Sept. 1940 to Sept. 1941 - An Island Time Publication - Amusement World - page 24 - book
4) Dorset: The Complete Guide - Jo Draper - The Dovecote Press - 1986 - ISBN: 978-0946159406 - page 125 - book
5) Dorset Churches - Portland (Former Church of St. Peter, The Grove) - website page
6) Dorset Echo - Enjoyable art with a big start - Ruth Meech - July 2007 - website page
7) Dorset Echo - Tenders being sought for church built by convicts - October 2003 - website page
8) Dorset Echo - Wedding licence may be a life-saver for church - August 2005 - website page
9) Exploring Portland - North of Grove Road - Geoff Kirby - website page
10) Historic England - Heritage at Risk Register - Church of St Peter, Grove Road, Grove, Portland - website page
11) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Church of St Peter - website page
12) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Gate Piers and Boundary Walls to North and West of St Peter's Church - website page
13) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - St Peter's Vicarage - website page
14) Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Property Pilot - Commercial Property - St Peter's Church, Portland - website page
15) Isle of Portland Official Guide - Portland Urban District Council - Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Chelternham and London - circa 1962 - page 20 - book
16) Online Parish Clerks - Portland Files: St Peters Church - The Grove - website page
17) Portland: A Topographical and Historical Gazetteer - Roy Mackenzie - 1999 - page 36 - book
18) Report of the Directors of Convict Prisons - Portland Prison - Extracts from the Governor's report for the year 1872
19) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles - website page
20) The Buildings of England: Dorset - John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner - Yale University Press - 1972 - ISBN: 978-0300095982 - page 343 - book
21) UK Genealogy Archives - Portland, Dorset, St. Peter, Grove - website page
As most residents of the Grove were prison staff and their families, St Peter's had a long association with the prison. It also served as the garrison church for the regiments stationed at the Verne Citadel into the 1930s.
History
Plans for and establishment of St Peter's Church
St Peter's was built to serve the residents of the Grove, which developed as a village with the opening of Portland Prison in 1848. The prison was established following the government's approval of plans for the transformation of Portland Roads into a harbour of refuge in 1847. In order to supply the stone required for the breakwaters and other associated works, the prison provided convict labour for the Admiralty Quarries.
The opening of the prison saw the Grove develop into a village, with the population reaching 1,100 by 1870. As Portland's overall population saw a dramatic increase, the churches of the island became insufficient. In particular, residents at the Grove, most of whom were prison staff and their families, felt poorly served as Portland's parish church, St George's, was over a mile away and many opted to attend services at the prison chapel instead. In response, Reverend Arthur Hill, the prison's chaplain, established a movement in 1868 to have a church built at the Grove. He formed a building committee, which included the prison's governor, two assistant governors, a number of officers, as well as Portland's rector, Rev. David Hogarth. Meanwhile, Rev. Hill also fought for a new school building for the Portland Prison Officers' School, which had become insufficient to serve the village's children.
The committee's appeal for a church received strong support and by July 1870, £1,863 of the estimated £2,681 expenditure towards the new church had been raised through subscriptions, donations and grants from various individuals and bodies, including £200 from the Salisbury Diocesan Church Building Society. A disused plot of land within the Admiralty Quarries, valued at £400, was donated to the committee by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, which was soon extended to include space for a new school as well. The plans for the church were drawn up by Captain Edmund Du Cane of the Royal Engineers (later Major-General Sir Edmund Du Cane), who presented them as a gift. At the time, Captain Du Cane was serving as the director of convict prisons and an inspector of military prisons.
Construction of St Peter's began in mid-1870, with the majority of it being built by convict labour, which was authorised by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The work was supervised by Mr. J. Rhodes, clerk of the works, with Mr. J. Latimer as foreman of works and Mr. G. Waters as the engineer. All of the building stone was sourced from the adjacent convict-operated quarries and supplied at a royalty per ton. The cost of materials amounted to an approximate £1,400. The required timber was purchased from Mr. C. Gibbs of Portland, the ironwork from Mr. J. Russell of Weymouth and the glass from Messrs. John Hall and Son of Broadmead.
St Peter's was completed on 26 August 1872 and consecrated on the following day by the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Rev. George Moberley. Over 600 people attended the consecration, which included the Archdeacon of Dorset, Thomas Sanctuary, and 30 members of the clergy. On the day, the church choir was joined by sailors of the boys' training ship HMS Boscawen. In addition to St Peter's, the new prison officers' school (and its associated headmaster's residence) was also completed and opened in 1872. In January 1874, following a concert held at St Peter's, a public tea at the nearby school saw Rev. Hill presented with a testimonial, on behalf of the Grove community, for his efforts in having the church and school erected.
20th century use of the church and eventual closure in 1988
In 1909, a new organ, built by Messrs. Norman and Beard of Norwich at a cost of £300, was installed in the church. In 1933, the Church of England united the parishes of St Peter's and All Saints', with St Peter's Church becoming a chapel of ease. The church was temporarily closed after receiving extensive bomb damage to its roof during an air raid in April 1941, but temporary repairs allowed it to reopen again later in the year. After World War II, the church continued to be used by military forces, mainly the Royal Navy, until church parades ceased to be mandatory in 1951.
As a result of declining congregation numbers, St Peter's was formally declared redundant by the Church of England on 31 May 1973. It was then used as a private chapel for the prison, which had been a Borstal Institution since 1921. During this period, the church's parish communion service, held each Sunday, was regularly attended by residents, prison staff families and borstal boys. The nearby Grove Infant School also made use the church during this time. In 1988, the prison, which became a Young Offenders Institution that year, ceased using St Peter's. The church fell into disuse over the following decade, but remained under the ownership of the prison service.
21st century use
During 2001-03, the church was maintained by a small group of volunteers which allowed it to be opened to the public. Being surplus to the requirements of HM Prison Service, it was put up for sale by informal tender in October 2003 through the Weymouth estate agent Palmer Snell. By this time, the church was in need of major repair work. As the building fell under planning class D1, its use was restricted to non-residential purposes only.
Local businessman Gary Nash became the new owner on 20 December 2004, having purchased the church for an undisclosed fee from the Home Office and Church Commissioners. Nash's vision for the church was to have it used by the community and re-licensed to perform weddings there. During 2005, he had the church grounds restored and toilets installed in an adjoining outbuilding, but the church remained largely unused. In July 2006, and again in July 2007, the church hosted a contemporary art exhibition by South West Art Work. At the time, the group expressed interest in using the church on a more permanent basis for the benefit of the community. A few years later, Nash placed the church on the market through the estate agents Hull Gregson Hull. It sold around 2014 for £100,000 under the condition of being used for "monument or ancillary purposes" only.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the church has been listed on English Heritage's "Heritage at Risk" register. Later in 2007, the organisation described the church as being "in poor condition" with "structural problems". Historic England surveyed the building in 2015 and reported: "Vulnerability increased by period of ownership by a scrap merchant. Relatively complete interior of interest as an undivided space and with robust contemporary fittings. Council in discussions with current owners". With no resolution agreed, the church's condition has continued to decline. In the latest "Heritage at Risk" entry, Historic England record that the local authority is "considering taking action against [the] owner".
Design
St Peter's is built in the Romanesque style and was designed to accommodate 522 people. The architect Captain Edmund Du Cane would later design the prison chapel at London's HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs, which was largely completed by 1889 and is architecturally similar to St Peter's. St Peter's is built of Portland stone, with the slate for its roof sourced from Penmoyle Quarry in Cornwall and Whitland Abbey Quarry in Wales. The church has a cruciform plan and is made up of a three-bay nave, chancel, north and south transepts, lean-to vestry and narthex. The chancel and transepts have a semi-circular shape. A bellcote containing a single bell sits on the west side of the building. A doorway leading into the north transept was originally used by garrisons of the Verne Citadel, while the south transept contains the organ.
The church's windows are mainly of semi-circular design with plain glass. Following bomb damage in 1940, one window was replaced the following year and is dedicated to the memory of Bandmaster J. Tyson and men of the Dorset Regiment killed in action. The west end of the church contains a wheel window. Below is the narthex which has seven arched windows, separated by doubled colonnettes. Of the nine early 20th century stained-glass windows in the chancel, one is dedicated to the memory of Rev. Hill. The west window is in memory of Mr. Rhodes, a former clerk of prison works. The most recent two of the chancel windows were installed in July 1921 and dedicated on 17 July.
The octagonal pulpit, font and lectern were all carved by convicts from Portland basebed stone. The lectern has an unusual hexagonal base and its desk is made from wainscot oak. The open-timbered roof of the church was designed with hammerbeams and arched braces. Using wood sourced from Riga, Latvia, the timber is held in place using wooden pegs, tongued and grooved, rather than nails. The wood used for the pews is also of Riga deal, stained and varnished, and the flooring of the nave and transepts made up of Riga battens.
A notable feature inside St Peter's is the mosaic work in the porch and sanctuary areas. These were made by female convicts, including Constance Kent, a female prisoner serving life imprisonment at HM Prison Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, for murder. During this period, Kent was producing mosaics for various other churches too, including St Paul's Cathedral in London, Bishop's Chapel in Chichester and St Swithun's Church in East Grinstead. Aside from the two original mosaic features, the church also features some later Byzantine-styled mosaic panels of the Four Evangelists in the reredos, which were dedicated to the memory of a churchwarden. Also in the reredos is a tablet listing the various regiments that served at the Verne Citadel from 1873 to 1937. The original tablet was unveiled by General Sir Alexander J. Godley in April 1925, after Rev. Herbert Pentin had the idea of commemorating those of the Verne who had used the church for worship.
In the 1972 book The Buildings of England: Dorset, authors John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner commented: "St Peter is in its own way as surprising and as bold in scale as St George Reforne, Easton." Eric Ricketts, in his 1979 book Old Buildings of Portland, noted: "Quite continental in its Romanesque conception, it is perhaps the technical quality of its construction which takes the eye rather than the design of the details. One believes that the convicts enjoyed building this church. St Peter's is a worthy successor to St George, Reforne." In her 1986 book Dorset: The Complete Guide, Jo Draper described the church as "not exactly pretty, but rather impressive." The church is summarised by Historic England as being executed in a "vigorous Lombardic Romanesque style".
Vicarage
In around 1886, a building fund was established by the church's then-vicar, Rev. Josiah Meigh, to raise funds for the erection of a purpose-built vicarage for St Peter's. Various subscriptions were received, including from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Bishop Burgess' Church Union Society and the Poor Benefice Augmentation Society, while the Admiralty donated the required plot of land and offered a reduced rate for the building stone. The vicarage was built in 1890-91 by Messrs. Conway and Waight of Portland to the designs of the Weymouth architect Samuel Jackson.
Parish room
In 1906, a parish room for St Peter's was established a short distance north-west of the church through the efforts of the then-vicar, Rev. L. Mason. A successful appeal was launched to raise funds for the room in late 1905. Two iron huts were soon purchased from Messrs Hill & Company of Gosport, who carried out a number of government works in the area during that period. The two huts were altered to form one large room and it was then erected by Mr. William Comben on land belonging to the Admiralty. The opening ceremony and dedication service was performed by Rev. Chas Askwith of St Mary's, Weymouth, on 21 July 1906, in the presence of around 200 people. The room, which was capable of accommodating around 300 people, remained in use into the 1950s and was subsequently demolished.
References
The following is an A-Z list of references for this page.
1) A Short History of St. Peter's Church Portland - Lithopress (Weymouth) Company - leaflet
2) Ancestry.com - Genealogy - Portland Year Book 1905: St Peter's Church, The Grove - Paul Benyon - website page
3) Do You Remember? - Portland's War - Part 2 - Sept. 1940 to Sept. 1941 - An Island Time Publication - Amusement World - page 24 - book
4) Dorset: The Complete Guide - Jo Draper - The Dovecote Press - 1986 - ISBN: 978-0946159406 - page 125 - book
5) Dorset Churches - Portland (Former Church of St. Peter, The Grove) - website page
6) Dorset Echo - Enjoyable art with a big start - Ruth Meech - July 2007 - website page
7) Dorset Echo - Tenders being sought for church built by convicts - October 2003 - website page
8) Dorset Echo - Wedding licence may be a life-saver for church - August 2005 - website page
9) Exploring Portland - North of Grove Road - Geoff Kirby - website page
10) Historic England - Heritage at Risk Register - Church of St Peter, Grove Road, Grove, Portland - website page
11) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Church of St Peter - website page
12) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - Gate Piers and Boundary Walls to North and West of St Peter's Church - website page
13) Historic England - The National Heritage List for England - St Peter's Vicarage - website page
14) Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Property Pilot - Commercial Property - St Peter's Church, Portland - website page
15) Isle of Portland Official Guide - Portland Urban District Council - Ed. J. Burrow & Co. Ltd, Chelternham and London - circa 1962 - page 20 - book
16) Online Parish Clerks - Portland Files: St Peters Church - The Grove - website page
17) Portland: A Topographical and Historical Gazetteer - Roy Mackenzie - 1999 - page 36 - book
18) Report of the Directors of Convict Prisons - Portland Prison - Extracts from the Governor's report for the year 1872
19) The British Newspaper Archive - various contemporary newspaper articles - website page
20) The Buildings of England: Dorset - John Newman and Nikolaus Pevsner - Yale University Press - 1972 - ISBN: 978-0300095982 - page 343 - book
21) UK Genealogy Archives - Portland, Dorset, St. Peter, Grove - website page
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