Garrison Church of St George, Whittington Barracks, Whittington, Staffordshire

Description

LICHFIELD

1094-1/0/10027 TAMWORTH ROAD
16-JUL-09 Garrison Church of St George, Whitting
ton Barracks

II
The Garrison Church of St George, completed in 1881 stands NE of the parade ground within Whittington Barracks.

MATERIALS: The building is predominantly red brick in English bond in simple Early English Style with some stonework and a slate roof.

PLAN: The church is orientated NW to SE, is cruciform in plan, with nave, chancel and N and S transepts. Attached to the S side of the chancel is an external lobby and chaplain's office. The vestry and verger's office are attached to the N transept.

EXTERIOR: The gables have low coping and many carry small stone wheel crosses. Another wheel-cross stands on the top of the sanctus bellcote. Each elevation has at least one large circular window with cinquefoil tracery and the whole building is carried on battered plinth. The remaining windows are mainly of lancet type with or without hood moulds, although there are some with plain horizontal lintels. At the W end of the nave are N and S facing doors with narrow porches. The nave walls have three stepped buttresses separating individual windows with moulded sill courses. Protruding from each side of the nave is a transept with large circular window and gable without a cross. Attached to the E side of the S transept is the chaplain's office with horizontal lintels over the S door and windows. A chimney stack leads up from the boiler room beneath the chaplain's office, reached by a flight of stairs situated to the E. The single storey vestry and verger's office attached to the N transept were added between 1902 and 1923 and have a pair of chimneys together with small and large lancet windows with wooden frames. Attached to the N facing external door leading into the vestry is a protruding timber surround.

INTERIOR: The chancel has a blue panelled vaulted roof with gold coloured framing, an ornate altar screen with regimental crests, altar rail, finely decorated tiles around the alter, panelling bearing memorial inscriptions, pews with decorated ends including regimental and other insignia and a low rood screen. The brick chancel arch with mouldings and blunt pointed arch rests on a pair of ornate painted pilasters. The ornate wooden pulpit stands below the N side of the chancel arch whilst the decorative alcove containing the Book of Remembrance is inserted into the wall near the S side of the arch. The very wide single span barrel vaulted nave is lit by four lancet windows in each of the long walls and three circular windows with cinquefoil tracery and four blunt pointed arch windows below. Regimental colours hang from the walls which also carry a large number of memorials. Occupying much of the nave are simple wooden pews and at the west end stands an octagonal Portland stone font with four pilasters and decorated panels on the basin. Two doors originally led into the W end of the nave from the N and S. The N one is blocked with a commemorative wooden panel, but the S one sits within a pointed arched frame within a cambered opening highlighted by a pair of narrow brick courses. Leading from the E end of the nave are a pair of transepts. Both are separated from the nave by a pair of blunt pointed arches supported by a single ornate Early English Style Portland stone column. Access to the church is mainly through the S transept and the N transept provides access down a short flight of steps to the vestry and verger's office.

HISTORY: Whittington Barracks were built as part of a far reaching national modernisation programme carried out by the Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell during the 1870's. Work on the barracks started around 1877, was carried out by Harry Lovatt & Son of Wolverhampton and was completed by 1881 when they were occupied by the 1st and 2nd South Staffordshire Regiments and the 1st and 2nd North Staffordshire Regiments.

Edward Cardwell, appointed to the War Office in 1868, addressed a chronic recruitment issue through a process of reform set out in the Localisation Act of 1872. He set up a network of local depots each centred on an area with a population large enough to sustain it, rather than based on operational needs. It was the first national barrack building initiative in England during peacetime.
Across Britain 29 new depots, including Whittington, were built from scratch, while about 40 existing barracks were adapted. The building programme was under the supervision of Major HC Seddon, Royal Engineers, Director of the Design Branch. The new barracks conformed to a standard model with local variations, and incorporated many of the improvements for which the Army Sanitation Commission and its predecessors had called.

Whittington Barracks has remained fully operational since 1881 and in this time has expanded, contracted and been altered to meet developing operational needs. Apart from the Staffordshire Regiments others also made use of the facilities from time to time and by 1902 enough accommodation had been added for the barracks to become a two battalion station.

The building now known as the Garrison Church of St George was the first building at the barracks to be completed, but was originally built as a chapel-school building. During the week days the building was used for education and on Sundays as a place of worship. The Whittington Chapel School was designed for 521 worshippers and 175 school children. The school at various times accommodated 383 soldiers, 50 officers and ladies, 66 women and children. The vestry doubled as a place of worship for other religions. It was not until 24th June 1924 that the building was consecrated as a place of worship. The church houses a wide variety of regimental and ecclesiastical memorials, including details of those who died in the various conflicts.

Sources: Tony Scott with Maurice Beedle, Whittington Barracks 125 Years of History
Plans provided by Defence Estates
James Douet, British Barracks 1600-1914, English Heritage, 1998
http://www.army.mod.uk/4298.aspx Accessed 3rd September 2008
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/staffordshire-news/2008/07/21/200m-medical-centre-plan-unveiled-for-whittington-barracks-97319-21378950/ Accessed 3rd September 2008
http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/site/scripts/planning_list.php?location2Text=whittington+barracks Accessed 3rd September

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
The Garrison Church of St George at Whittington Barracks is designated at grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is probably the only surviving Cardwell period garrison church
* It represents a good example of an Early English style chapel-school from the Victorian period
* Its direct association with the important national building programme following Cardwell's 1872 Localisation Act
* It represents the most significant visual manifestation of the two Staffordshire Regiment's history and achievements
* The quality of the interior detailing and workmanship is high
* The church has seen only limited alteration
* It is directly associated with other buildings of national significance

Reasons for Listing

The Garrison Church of St George is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is probably the only surviving Cardwell period garrison church
* It represents a good example of an Early English style chapel-school from the Victorian period
* Its direct association with the important national building programme following Cardwell's 1872 Localisation Act
* It represents the most significant visual manifestation of the two Staffordshire Regiment's history and achievements
* The quality of the interior detailing and workmanship is high
* The church has seen only limited alteration
* It is directly associated with other buildings of national significance

External Links

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