Chronological Gazetteer of the works of E.W. Pugin
By GJ Hyland – 11 March 2010 This article is undergoing continual refinement, and is updated periodically.
CONVENT CHAPELS
CATHEDRALS • MONASTERY PARISH CHURCHES
• PARISH CHURCHES • CEMETERY CHAPELS
CHAPELS CONNECTED WITH COLLEGES AND INSTITUTIONS • DUAL-PURPOSE CHAPEL/SCHOOL-ROOM BUILDINGS
PRIVATE CHAPELS • CONVENT CHAPELS
CHAPELS CONNECTED WITH COLLEGES AND INSTITUTIONS • DUAL-PURPOSE CHAPEL/SCHOOL-ROOM BUILDINGS
PRIVATE CHAPELS • CONVENT CHAPELS
In England, EW
Pugin's most important convent chapels (both for enclosed Benedictine nuns) are
those at Oulton in Staffordshire, dating from the very beginning of his career
(and in connection with which his father had already been approached), and at
Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire, which extends into his final phase.
Internally, Oulton has fortunately escaped the ravages of liturgical
re-ordering.
Sadly, the same cannot be said of the interior of Stanbrook where the original High Altar and reredos of the abbey church no longer survive, having first suffered mutilation already in the late 1930s (long before the Second Vatican Council), and then completely removed (together with J Hardman Powell's metal screen) in 1971, when the Minton encaustic floor tiles in the chancel (designed by EW Pugin & JH Powell) were replaced by ones similar to those often found in public lavatories. |
In other respects, however, the furnishings of Stanbrook Abbey Church are remarkably well preserved, the Minton floor tiles in the nuns choir (also designed by EW Pugin & JH Powell), the Kauri pine choir stalls and the organ case meriting special mention. Exteriorally, however, Stanbrook suffered even before it was begun, EW Pugin's original apsidal, cruciform design, see Fig.46a below, which incorporated a W. tower surmounted by a spired, octagonal belfry stage, having been replaced by a somewhat inferior one (P Howell, Ecclesiology Today, No. 38, pp.37-42, 2007). Even this he was forced to alter at the behest of the chaplain, Dom Laurence Shepherd OSB, who, 'at the last minute', insisted on a clock-tower with a dominating stair-turret (of which EW Pugin here strongly disapproved) in place of the intended W. end bell-cote; accordingly, the abutment of the tower to the end of the nave is less than satisfactory. The stair turret is actually not dissimilar to that which was originally on the tower of the Granville Hotel, Ramsgate.
Another fine convent chapel is that for the nuns of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus at St Leonards-on-Sea, E. Sussex (Fig. 47a, b).
Another fine convent chapel is that for the nuns of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus at St Leonards-on-Sea, E. Sussex (Fig. 47a, b).
EW Pugin's partnership with GC Ashlin in Ireland produced two of the very few essays in non-Gothic design, namely Clonakilty Convent Chapel (Fig.48) and Mount Anville, the former being Romanesque in order to match existing conventual buildings.
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REALISED DESIGNS
UNREALISED DESIGNS
COMMISSIONS/WORKS NOTIFIED IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALS AND ELSEWHERE, WHICH WERE POSSIBLY ERRONEOUSLY ATTRIBUTED, NEVER EXECUTED, OR FOR WHICH NO EVIDENCE OF EXECUTION HAS YET BEEN FOUND
- 1853-54(24 Nov) Oulton, Staffs. - St Mary's Abbey Church (Benedictine nuns): The Abbey Church now lacks its original W. gable bell-cote; E. window (1854) & W. window (1867) both by Hardman & Co. High Altar carved by Lane & Lewis of Birmingham, but the original openwork spire surmounting the Benediction Throne was removed in 1954 when it became unsafe. Other minor EW Pugin work includes the Gatehouse (with a 'turn' for dispensing alms), Porteress' Lodge and Cloisters that partly encircle the nave. The convent itself is earlier, and is not by EW Pugin, and neither are the Chapter House, presbytery & double sacristy, which are all by AE Purdie, 1889.
- 1860: Wolverhampton, W. Midlands - St Mary & St John's Convent Chapel (Sisters of Mercy): in St John's Square; still exists, but the associated convent no longer function as such.
- 1866-67 (with GC Ashlin): Clonakilty, Co. Cork, Ireland - Convent Chapel (Sisters of Mercy): plans dated from 1865; in Romanesque style to match existing buildings. Stained glass windows by Earley & Powell, 1867, and in 1872 a new altar (by Ashlin) was consecrated. Convent closed 2007.
- 1866: with GC Ashlin: Dundrum, Co. Dublin, Ireland - Mount Anville Convent Chapel (Society of the Sacred Heart nuns): in Classical (Italianated) style.
- 1867-68: with GC Ashlin: Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland - Convent Chapel (Sisters of Mercy): the pre-existing chapel became a lateral chapel separated from the new one by an arcade with iron screens; stained glass by Earley & Powell in the 5-light E. window. Convent closed 2003, sold 2004.
- 1867-68(20 Oct): St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, Sussex - Convent Chapel (Society of the Holy Child Jesus nuns): dedicated to St Michael & all the Holy Angels. Nave & aisles conform to a pre-existing ground-plan (defined by partly constructed walls up to & including the tops of the window arches) of a church by an unknown architect, dedicated to All Souls, the building of which had ceased in 1843, 5 years before the arrival of the nuns. The annals of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus state that the architect might have been AWN Pugin, but, so far, it has not been possible to confirm this. The Order rejected designs submitted by G Goldie in favour of those by EW Pugin. Lady Altar (1884) by Pugin & Pugin. Chapel, which still exists, was closed in 1976 when the nuns moved to their Order's convent in Mayfield, E. Sussex.
- 1868: with GC Ashlin: Hampton, Drumcondra, Co. Dublin, Ireland - Monastery Chapel (Order of Discalced Carmelite nuns): convent & chapel still in use.
- 1868-73(completed by Ashlin): Fermoy, Co. Cork, Ireland - Loretto Convent Chapel (Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary nuns): usually attributed to Ashlin alone, but the plans must predate the dissolution of the partnership, the Foundation Stone having being laid in October 1868.
- 1869-1871(6 Sep): Callow End, Worcs. - Stanbrook Abbey Church of Our Lady of Consolation & cloisters (Benedictine nuns): commission (dating from 1868) was obtained on the strength of the Order's satisfaction with his early work at Oulton; cloisters connect with earlier buildings. The W. tower replaces the intended bell-cote. Stone carving by RL Boulton and HH Martyn; wood carving by W Farmer of London (organ case) & Morley of Ramsgate (choir stalls). The design of the organ case is the same as that which originally contained the pipe-work of the organ at Meanwood House. John Knight Morley was the manager of EW Pugin's South-Eastern Works in Ramsgate. Encaustic tiles to the design of EW Pugin & JH Powell by Minton, Taylor & Co. The High Altar & reredos, which was gilded & coloured in 1878, were sculpted at EW Pugin's South-Eastern works in Ramsgate; the reredos was simplified and reduced in 1937-38, and completely removed, together with the High Altar and JH Powell's open-work metal screen, in 1971 (now in Birmingham Museum). Chapel of the Holy Thorn of 1885, by Pugin & Pugin. The entire property was put up for sale in 2006, and is now owned by Amazing Retreats, part of Clarenco LLP.
- 1859-60: Ravenhurst, Birmingham, W. Midlands - Chapel at St Anne's Convent (Sisters of Mercy): according to S Welsh, the chapel of 1878-80 by TR Donnelly was possibly a realisation of earlier sketches by EW Pugin. The entire site was destroyed by bombing in WWII.
- 1867: with GC Ashlin?: Cashel, Co Tipperary, Ireland - Convent Chapel (Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary): the chapel is preserved, but the convent buildings now serve as a Nursing Home.
UNREALISED DESIGNS
- 1859: with J Murray: Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland - Mercy Convent Chapel: the existing chapel is by SF Hynes.
- c.1861: Edinburgh, Scotland - Convent Chapel of St Margaret (Ursulines of Jesus nuns): only the W. side of the projected quadrangle of buildings was built.
- 1862-63: Bartestree, Herefords. - Chapel at the Convent of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge: deemed by Bishop Brown to be too expensive; the existing chapel (of St Anne, c.1865-67) is by B Bucknall, with High Altar & reredos by PP Pugin (now in Chicago, USA).
- 1863-64: Hales Place, Canterbury, Kent - Carmelite Convent Church: through the munificence of Mary Barbara Felicity Hales*; convent foundations completed and walls built to 1st floor level, but then abandoned until 1876 when Dunn & Hansom proposed utilising them for part of an abbey dedicated to St Benedict, which, however, was never built - see also Hales Place, Carmelite convent and farm.
* Mary B F Hales (b. 1835, d. 1885) was the granddaughter of Edward Hales (6th Bt), and daughter of Edward de Morlaincourt who inherited the Hales estates in 1829; he died in 1837, and Mary became heiress. She was born in France, and entered a French Carmelite Convent in 1858, but was allowed to continue to manage her estate in England. She transferred to the English Carmelites, and in 1863 began work on the convent at Hales Place. She was released from her vows in 1865, but was still intent on establishing a religious order at Hales Place, this time for the Benedictines, but it never materialised. On her death, Hales Place was successively a Jesuit school/novitiate, a convent, a Jesuit theological seminary/novitiate, and a military hospital during the First World War. The Jesuits left in 1923, and the house was demolished in 1928; the High Altar from the domestic chapel, rebuilt, was removed to the Catholic church in Dulwich. - 1868: Callow End, Worcs. - Stanbrook Abbey Church (Benedictine nuns): first design for a cruciform abbey church with an apsidal chancel under the same roof line as the nave, and a W end tower that merges at roof level into an octagonal belfry stage surmounted by a short spire (P Howell, Ecclesiology Today, vol. 38, pp.37-42, May 2007). Apart from the tower, this design has certain external features in common with PP Pugin's church of Our Lady of the Angels (1898-1901) for the Benedictine nuns at Princethorpe Priory, Warks; it is now the chapel of Princethorpe College.
COMMISSIONS/WORKS NOTIFIED IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL JOURNALS AND ELSEWHERE, WHICH WERE POSSIBLY ERRONEOUSLY ATTRIBUTED, NEVER EXECUTED, OR FOR WHICH NO EVIDENCE OF EXECUTION HAS YET BEEN FOUND
- nd: Dublin, Ireland - Convent Chapel (Religious Sisters of Charity): in Stanhope St; connected with St Marie's Industrial School. Most probably by Ashlin, 1870, on grounds of both date & style.