 St John's Church, Kates Hill, Surveys and Listing | sitemap | log in
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This is a free Spanglefish 1 website. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LISTING APP PAGE 2Listing application continued...
The work was carried out under a Faculty dated 29th July 1872.[1] We believe the designs for this work were submitted by Davies and Middleton, a firm of Dudley architects who took over William Bourne’s practice after he died in 1870. The interior features galleries on three sides and affords sittings for 730 of which 360 were formerly subscribed.[2] The original roof, which we believe was of Welsh or Cumbrian slate, was replaced between 1969 and 1981, unfortunately with Marley Modern flat concrete tiles. One of our aims is to replace the flat concrete tiles with tiles as close to the original as possible. In September 1900, the church was closed for the entire month while re-decoration took place inside. This included “roof timbers cleaned and the walls of celestory and body of church coloured in neutral green and the mouldings to arches, cornices, corbels and reveals to windows coloured as Bath stone. The chancel walls are coloured in pale hints of neutral green and terracotta with Bath stone mouldings and reliefs. Whole of pews, choir stalls, gallery front and other woodwork stained as pitch-pine and varnished. The gas standards and ornamental brass work were re-lacquered and polished.”[3] Rear exterior of church seen from north east [1] Bishop’s Register 44 p. 116 [2] Kelly’s Directory of Worcestershire 1932 page 82
DATE Building work started on the church in 1838 when the foundation stone was laid on 20th October that year, by the Hon. Susannah Julia Ward (daughter of Lord Ward and second cousin of a former Earl of Dudley). This ceremony took place in the presence of the Bishop of Exeter. The land for the church was donated by the Earl of Dudley. The church was consecrated on 27th July 1840 by the Rt. Rev. Robert James Carr, D.D., Bishop of Worcester. Rev. T. L. Claughton, Vicar of Kidderminster (and later Bishop of St. Albans) preached the sermon. The sister church St James, at Eve Hill, Dudley was consecrated on the same day. Whilst researching at Dudley Archives and Local History Service we came across the prayer said by Rev. William Henry Cartwright at the laying of the foundation stone on 20th October 1838.
Prayer – Laying of foundation stone [3] Blocksidge’s Almanac for Dudley 1898 - 1901
ARCHITECT
Holy Trinity, Langley – now demolished St. Giles, Rowley Regis – since rebuilt St. James’ Church, Dudley – Grade II listed St. John the Evangelist, Swindon St. Luke, Cradley Heath St. Michael, Soho Hill, Handsworth – Grade II listed
William Bourne was also the architect of St. John’s Church, Swindon, Staffordshire. There was a similar stone bearing the name of William Bourne at St John’s, but it cannot now be traced and it is believed that it is possible it was covered over when alterations took place in 1873.
St. James, Eve Hill – sister church to St. John’s, Kates Hill
William Bourne is also credited with being the architect for the following local school houses
(Grade II listed, it is now Dudley Central Mosque) St. John’s School House (now offices) St. Thomas’s School House St. James Church of England Infants School Church of England, Quinton, Day School
St. John’s Church showing western tower
In 1991 the St. James’ school building was preserved in the Black Country Living Museum, having been moved brick by brick with funds provided by the Charles Hayward Trust. The school was relocated by the trust as Sir Charles Hayward (Father of Sir Jack Hayward, Wolverhampton Wanderers) attended there.[1] The building is now used to show school children how Victorian school life used to be. The site of the original school was located near to St James church. The architect Willliam Bourne is mentioned on the Black Country Living Museum website.[2] Other significant buildings designed by Bourne include Dudley Guest Hospital, Tipton Road, Dudley
The lodge house at the hospital is the original building although this is the only part of the site which has not now been rebuilt.
Lodge house at Dudley Guest hospital
Bourne also designed the original Town Hall, Dudley[3] which has been much altered since.The original building included the Police Court, Magistrates Rooms, Town Clerk’s Offices, Council Rooms, Offices for the Borough
Original Town Hall, Dudley Guardians’ and Superintendents Office, and was of perpendicular Gothic style, of red brick relieved With stone facings. The Dudley Mechanics Institute[4] is no longer standing.
William Bourne also designed alterations to the following churches St. Edmunds, Dudley, St. James, Eve Hill [1] The Charles Hayward Trust [2] http://www.bclm.co.uk/school.htm [3] Blocksidge’s Almanac for Dudley 1885 [4] Dudley: Illustrated by Photographs 1868
OTHER WILLIAM BOURNE CHURCHES
William Bourne church St Lukes Rednall Road, Cradley Heath, West Midlands. Does not appear to be maintained in good condition and has suffered vandalism but miraculously has escaped the redevelopment of Cradley Heath including a road widening scheme. Note the foliage growing out of the guttering.
William Bourne church St Michael’s at Handsworth, Grade II listed. Built 15 years after St John’s (1855) and shows the result of him being able to work with a considerably higher budget figure. (£8000 against £3000 for St John’s). This church is situated in a small time capsule of heritage properties including Soho House (grade II* listed), the home of Matthew Boulton for 43 years until his death in 1809, and which is now a museum.
William Bourne Church St John’s Swindon Nr Dudley West Midlands The best kept example of a William Bourne building that we have been able to find. Not a listed building. Inside the church there is a plaque acknowledging William Bourne as the architect. (see page 12)
Further information about William Bourne
We have searched all local archives and other publications for an obituary for William Bourne, which may have given details of other buildings for which he was architect. The nearest we found was in the Dudley Herald of Saturday 3 December, 1870 following his death on Wednesday 30th November 1870, which reported as follows: SUDDEN DEATH OF MR WILLIAM BOURNE “Mr William Bourne, architect, died suddenly, on Wednesday at his residence near Dawley Bank, Wallheath. The deceased gentleman was about sixty years old. During his whole life Mr Bourne was connected with Dudley, and the public and most of the other large buildings in the town were erected from his plans and under his direction. Up to the time of his death the deceased superintended the alteration of the Dudley Almshouses to the purposes of Dudley General Hospital”. This tantalisingly vague obituary report leads us to believe that we have a lot more to learn about William Bourne, architect, and our efforts continue. We certainly feel from our findings so far that William Bourne is an unsung hero of Dudley, and we were very pleased when we found that William Bourne was in fact the original architect for the Dudley Town Hall complex. He died before work started, and following transfer of the plans his drawing of the originals had became a lost fact. He was just 27 years old when he designed St John’s and sister church St James. We have located the William Bourne grave, which is in the grounds of St Edmunds Church, Dudley, where he was a Churchwarden. His former home Dawley House in Wallheath is still standing and is now converted to flats.
MATERIALS
The church is constructed of limestone shoddies with natural stone dressings of soft Gornal sandstone.
St. John’s Church, showing roof crosses
These materials were available locally at the time and probably came from the nearby quarries of Wren’s Nest and Gornal.
St. John’s Church, shown from the east
The materials chosen are durable to the weather and are a good quality stone to use for the fine tooling work required in the dressings. Unfortunately as the rainwater goods have not been maintained for many years a chemical reaction has occurred between the two stones and caused a great deal of damage to the sandstone.
St. John’s Church, showing western tower |  |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
