Architect and Architecture

Summary:

Architect: Edward Welby Pugin (son of Augustus Welby Pugin).

Architectural Style: Neo-Gothic

Opened: 12th December 1867
 

  • From the Centenary Booklet - 1967

    • The architect appointed to make the designs for the English Martyrs was Edward Welby Pugin. He was the son and architectural heir of the well-known, and eccentric, Augustus Welby Pugin, who did the detailing of the new Palace of Westminster in partnership with Sir Charles Barry, and who undertook to design so many churches that overwork caused him to lose his reason. Most of their work must have been in the surging new towns and suburbs of exploding cities, which kept scores of architects and builders in work. The rave fashion was for the style known as Gothic, though the innumerable Victorian Gothic churches more closely resembled one another than they did the Gothic which was their model. It was said that Pugin and Pugin had done so many of the new churches that they did not know their own works when they saw them from the windows of trains. In Lancashire alone E. W. Pugin was responsible for over twenty churches.

      English Martyrs should therefore share more than a family resemblance with many other Victorian churches, but its rather gaunt and simple outline is not as much broken with towers, spires, and the profusion of carving as many others. Mostly the churches of this period were supposed to imitate the style of the English 12th century. In fact, the merit of the 12th century churches was the extraordinary simplicity and grace of the structures which held up what were often enormous buildings. But the Gothic, revivalists, reacting against the boringly rational and simple shapes of the 18th century style we know as Georgian, attributed to the 12th century all the complexity and imagination which they wished to see in their own buildings. For various reasons, they felt compelled to imitate the achievements of some imaginary better past. In the 12th century practically the only materials used were wood and stone. The Victorians had marble, iron and brick to add to the materials; and the Greek and Roman classical as stylistic alternatives to the Gothic. The Grecian style was chosen for the first gasworks in Preston, and for the Harris

      Library and Art School, but it had pagan associations which were not felt to be appropriate to the house of God. Gothic was evocative of a more spiritual, if not less sinful, age than the 19th century. Hence the style of the English Martyrs. As to the materials, brick was used for houses and "dark satanic mills" and was, therefore, unbecoming; and iron for utilitarian structures like railway stations. In churches it was therefore disguised to look like stone (in pillars and columns), or wood (in roofs). Marble, on the other hand, had the highest associations, so you will see plenty of it in English Martyrs. One of the most interesting oddities about the materials is that the stone of the Lady Altar, St. Joseph's Altar and Baptism Font, came from Caen in Normandy. The Norman invaders had brought stone for Norwich Cathedral from the same place in the early 12th century.

      There was not much to spend on Gothic fantasies at English Martyrs. Money raised between 1865 and 1868 came to less than £2,000, and the initial bill was £7,825 10s. 0. Pugin was reluctant to cut his coat according to his cloth, and in reply to the toast at the luncheon at the Bull Hotel in celebration of the opening, 12th December, 1867, he defended his reputation against the visible effects of economy: "he had been compelled to show what he could not do, rather than what he could. In every case he had found that every point of design, every corner, every feature which he wished to see produced had in the end to be sacrificed to necessity - simply for want of means".  He said that there was no danger of a Catholic architect falling into the error of over-elaboration, which he thought so gross in the new Law Courts, "for the means were not sufficient to enable him to carry out what he wished" (laughter and applause).      .

  • Extract from “Our Churches and Chapels”
     by “Atticus” (A.  Hewitson), published in 1869.  The original transcription was by Peter Moulding and is available via www.gutenberg.net.

    • On the 26th of May, in the same year, the foundation-stone was laid, with great ceremony, by Dr.  Goss, and on the 12th of December, 1867, the church was opened.  Mr.  E.  W.  Pugin designed the building, which externally does not look very wonderful at present; but, when completed, it will be a handsome place.  The original design includes a beautiful steeple, surmounted with pinnacles; but want of funds precludes its erection.

      The church is a high double-roofed edifice--looks like two buildings, one placed above the other; and, owing to the absence of a steeple, it seems very tall and bald.  It has a pretty western gable, which can only be fully appreciated by close inspection.  The centre of this gable is occupied by a fine eight-light window, and the general work is surmounted by pinnacles and ornamental masonry.  Two angels, cut in stone, originally formed part of the ornamentation; but during a strong gale, early in 1868, they were blown down.  These "fallen angels" have never regained their first estate; and as they might only tumble down if re-fixed, and perhaps kill somebody, which would not be a very angelic proceeding, we suppose they will not be interfered with.

      The church has an imposing, a noble interior.  It is wide, lofty, has a fine calm majestic look, and is excellently arranged.  The nave, which is 69 feet high, is supported by 14 stone pillars.  From nearly any point every part of the building may be seen; the nave pillars, do not, as is the case in some churches, obstruct the vision; and everything seems easy, clear, and open.  In the daytime a rich shadowy light is thrown into the church by the excellent disposition of its windows; at eventide the sheen of the setting sun, caught by the western window, falls like a bright flood down the nave, and makes the scene beautiful. 

      The high altar is a fine piece of workmanship; is of Gothic design, is richly carved, is ornamented with marbles, has a canopy of most elaborate construction, and is in good harmony with the general architecture.  Two small altars are near it.  One of them, dedicated to St.  Joseph, and given by Mr.  J.  Pyke, of this town, is particularly handsome; the other, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, is of a less costly, though very pretty, character.  Near one of the pillars on the north-eastern side there stands a square wooden frame, which is called the pulpit.  It is a deliciously primitive and remarkably common-place concern; but it is strong enough, and will have to stop where it is until money for something better is raised.

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