Hastings – Emmanuel, Vicarage Road

This can be identified with the unidentified Hastings church by A W Jeffery and W Skiller, reported in 1874 in Building News (BN 24 p88) to be under construction at a cost of £4060, paid by Mrs Sophie Mendham.  In the event, the final cost appears to have been £4500 (KD 1899).

It was started in 1873 and is substantial, built of random cut ragstone with lancets, which are single in the aisles and grouped in the clerestory and east end.  A south east tower has big bell-openings and a flat battlemented top with pinnacles.  A baptistery projects in the middle of the south aisle, with a conical roof and shafts inside at each angle.  The interior is faced with brick and the rere-arches of the clerestory are shafted, whilst the capitals of the arcades are decorated with bands of nailhead.  Unusually, the flat soffits of the arches of the arcade have panels of brick.  There is a chancel arch, but the chancel is not deep, for the church had Evangelical sympathies.

W H and J D Murray in 1886 added a west porch (BN 50 p524 (erroneously said to be at the non-existent Emmanuel, Eastbourne)) and in 1893 a lower west extension with an arch from the nave that has a gallery over.  An inscription in the church records war damage in 1942, especially to the north west corner, including the entrance.  It appears to have been repaired unchanged.

Fittings

Font: Squat square bowl with projecting rounded corners.
Glass:
1. (East window) Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 1894 (www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 4/3/2013).  This shows the sombre colours favoured by the company at this time; repaired after the bomb damage.
2. (Two north lancets – formerly) J Hardman and Co, designed by D B Taunton, 1932 (DSGW 1939).  These were presumably blown out in 1942.
3. (South aisle, first and second lancets) Maile Studios designed by F Baker, 1951 (www.stainedglassrecords.org retrieved on 4/3/2013).  Remarkably conservative for the date.
Pulpit: Dated 1909.  Variegated marble with arcaded sides.
Reredos: Arcaded marble with the Ten Commandments etc.

My thanks to Nick Wiseman for the colour photographs

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