Presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston, Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk

Summary

The presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston, constructed 1938-1939 to the designs of Eric Gill in partnership with J Edmund Farrell.

Description

The presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston, constructed 1938-1939 to the designs of Eric Gill in partnership with J Edmund Farrell.

MATERIALS: the presbytery is constructed entirely of red brick and the roof is covered in pantiles.

PLAN: the principal spaces are within the southern half of the house, facing into the church garden, while the staircase and WCs are in the large gabled closet wing that projects to the north.

EXTERIOR: the building is walled in red brick laid in Flemish bond with pitched roofs covered in pantiles. It is two storeys high with attics. There is a longer range of four bays oriented east-west that faces the garden, and a wide gabled closet wing that projects towards Sussex Road on the north side. All of the windows have been replaced in uPVC.

At the north-west corner of the house, the principal entrance is covered by the pentice that connects to the church. The doorway itself comprises an oak plank door beneath a brick lintel. The pentice, or covered way, is three bays long with a pitched roof that merges with that of the presbytery to form a catslide. Its walls are formed from a broad arcade that rises directly from the ground without any columns, mirroring those of the church.

The west elevation is gabled with kneelers and is two bays wide. There are two cruciform casement windows at ground floor, one two-light multi-pane casement at first floor, and a multi-pane single-light casement at attic level, all beneath flat gauged brick arches.

The south side of the building is the most regular. There are four windows at ground and first floor (cruciform casements at ground, two-light casements at first), and two roof dormers with multi-pane casements, four lights in width. Just beyond the ridge are two chimney stacks with stepped brick cornices.

The kneelered east gable is two bays wide and attaches to the closet wing at the right-hand side. There is a replacement door, half-glazed with an overlight, and a three-light casement at ground floor. All other windows are two-light casements, including one at the ground floor of the closet wing, one at first floor and one in the roof dormer of the closet wing, and another in the attic.

The north elevation of the closet wing is another kneelered gable. At ground floor, there is a doorway with one blocked window on its left-hand side and two square windows on the right. At first floor, there is a large cruciform casement and a smaller single-light multi-pane casement. At attic level in dark relief brickwork is the date of completion: 1939.

INTERIOR: the interior plan remains intact, along with many of the original finishes. Oak plank doors, some quarry tiled floors, pine boarded floors, and original fireplaces survive. The fireplaces (now blocked) have a mixture of tiled and brick surrounds characteristic of the late 1930s.

The principal feature of the interior is the staircase which has an open well, a closed string, stick balusters and a flat handrail. The whole construction is of oak and is traditionally assembled using pegs, mortices and tenons rather than nails or other fixings. The numerous newel posts all terminate in a recurring motif: intersecting barrelled arches. It has been altered at ground floor level with a glazed panel introduced to create a draught lobby.

History

The first post-Reformation Catholic church in Gorleston was a converted malthouse that stood on Church Lane. The building, dedicated to St Peter, was in use from 1889. Ambrose Page and Mrs Nellie Carson were the first to marry there, in 1908, and Page later bequeathed enough money for a new site to be bought in 1913 and to get permission (by 1938) for the construction of a new church and presbytery.

Fr Thomas Walker commissioned Eric Gill to design the new buildings. The latter had trained but not practised as an architect and to deliver the project he engaged the more experienced J Edmund Farrell to work alongside him. The contractors were HR Middleton & Co of Yarmouth.

The presbytery was constructed between 1938 and 1939 and is marked with the latter date on its northern gable. It is not clear the extent to which the design of this building is fully attributable to Gill and it may be more directly the work of Farrell.

Since its construction, there have been some alterations to the building: the roof coverings have been renewed, the windows have been replaced with uPVC glazing, and the open well of the staircase has been glazed-across at the ground floor to block draughts.

Eric Gill (1882-1940) is renowned for his sculpture, printmaking and typography. He attended Chichester Technical and Art School, received architectural training under WD Caröe, and calligraphic instruction from Edward Johnston. In 1913 Gill converted to Roman Catholicism and his theology stood at the core of the artistic communities he established at Ditchling (Sussex), Capel-y-ffin (Powys), and Piggotts in High Wycombe (Bucks). His works feature in some highly listed buildings (Westminster Cathedral, Grade I; London Underground Headquarters, Grade I; Broadcasting House, Grade II*). Gill regularly kept a diary and his own writings show that he sexually abused his daughters and sisters. It was only with the publication of a new biography of Gill in 1989 that this information reached a public audience, since when he has become a controversial figure.

J Edmund Farrell had been a resident of Piggotts alongside Gill. He was not solely responsible for the design of any listed buildings. He worked with Gill on some other projects, such as furnishings for the Anglican church of St Michael in Stoke Prior, Worcestershire. Perhaps his most notable individual work is a 1935 private house called Jordan's End in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, built in a modernist style.

First listed at Grade II* on 5 August 1974 as part of the Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gorleston (1246581).

Reasons for Listing

The Presbytery of St Peter's Church, Gorleston, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for its intact plan form and the high degree of survival of its internal oak joinery;
* for the quality of its craftsmanship, especially the principal staircase.

Historic interest:

* as a well-surviving Catholic presbytery built at the very beginning of the Second World War.

Group value:

* for the strong visual and functional relationship it shares with the Grade II*-listed church of St Peter.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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