Description

PORTLAND

SY67SE GROVE ROAD, Grove
969-1/1/135 (North side)
21/09/78 Church of St Peter

GV II*

Former Anglican parish church, now chapel to Young Offender
Institution. Consecrated August 1872. Designed by Capt. Du
Cane, RE and built at cost of »8000. Portland ashlar, slate
roofs. Cruciform unaisled plan with western narthex and bell
cote, and trefoil-plan transepts and chancel, all in vigorous
Lombardic Romanesque style. West front has lofty gabled bell
cote on coped gable to kneelers over 8-foil wheel window in
sunk panel to pointed moulded arch above lean-to narthex with
raised copings and 7 arched windows behind screen of doubled
colonnettes; at south end a raking buttress to left and pair
of plank doors in moulded arch. Main body has lofty plinth
with offsets, flat pilasters to sunk panels and continuous
dwarf arcade to Lombard bands at eaves with moulded cornice
and cast iron cavetto-mould gutter. Nave has 2+2+1 lights, and
transepts 7 single lights; north transept also has central
door under small arched light. Apse has blank panel adjoining
transept, then 9 lights behind screen of paired colonnettes.
Lean-to vestry in north-east corner has circular stack on
square base, and a door to N.
Interior: 3-bay nave with tied arch-braced scissor trusses and
king post to stone corbels. Unplastered walls. Windows in deep
embrasures, roll- mould surround stopped to rosettes and steep
sloping cill. Plain glass except centre S, replacing one
damaged by bombing in 1941, in memory of Bandmaster J. Tyson
and men of the Dorset Regiment killed in action. West wheel
window series of angels and central monogram IHS. In transepts
a varied version of the nave trusses. Chancel on 2+2+1 steps,
sanctuary with series of deep-set rectangular panels flanking
central 4-bay reredos with Evangelists in mosaic, under
windows with paired colonnettes, and blank panels with names
of Regiments serving at The Verne from 1873 to 1937. Boarded
celure, simple hammer-beam trusses. Area of black and white
mosaic under wooden altar table. Stained glass mainly C20. To
left and right of chancel arch are arched recesses containing
Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, and Creed; organ in south transept,
stone octagonal pulpit, and unusual hexagonal base to stone
lectern. Plain pine pews. In narthex some black and white
mosaic, plank ceiling.

As with many of the buildings on Portland, much of the work is
reputed to have been done by convicts from the prison, and the
mosaic at St. Peter's is known to have been the work of
Constance Kent, who was serving a life sentence in Parkhurst
prison; she was released, and died at the age of 100 in 1940.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Newman J: Dorset: London:
1972-1989: 343).

Listing NGR: SY6988972581

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St. Peter's Church, Portland at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7591329

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)