Churches - Bevendean History Project
St Mark's Church, Kemp Town
The following article appeared in the Brighton Gazette on 6 February 1875.
St. Mark's, Kemp Town, is a church of no very great architectural pretensions, but still one which has claims of its own to attention by reason of associations that link it to one of the important educational institutions of the town, and keep in honoured recollection the deeds of a revered and popular nobleman. The growing population in the now prosperous and eminently respectable district of Kemp Town were for some time without a church in their immediate neighbourhood, and at length when St. Mary's Hall was completed it was found there was no church conveniently near in which the pupils might attend public worship, there seemed to be a likelihood of the inhabitants having their requirements met.
For the Marquis of Bristol, a most philanthropic and generous nobleman, who had contributed to the erection of St. Mary's Hall, anxious that the inmates of this institution should have the benefit of a church in their immediate neighbourhood, in 1839 made a present to the Trustees of the site on which St. Mark's stands. Following up one liberal deed by another, he initiated the work of building the church by paying £2,000 for the erection of the framework, and he would have continued the generous work till its foil completion, if the Church Commissioners had not refused their sanction to his labours. Determined that the church should be finished, however, even if he was not the direct instrument honoured, the Marquis handed over the property to the trustees of St. Mary's Hall, and afterwards added to his past generosity by giving a donation of £500 towards the building fund. But the work did not proceed with rapidity, it was a slow and painful task, and quite eight years elapsed before the church was finished, the cost, additional to what had been given by the Marquis of Bristol, amounting to £5,000, or making a total cost altogether, exclusive of the value of the site, of £7,000.
One of the trustees became individually responsible for the £5,000, in order that the work might be no longer delayed, and in discharge of this amount he altogether received £4,830 5s. 8d., the amount raised by subscriptions and offertories, so that he was not called upon to make up a very large sum out of his own pocket. A considerable portion of the cost of the building was absorbed by the fittings, which are of carved oak, and cost £3,000, an expenditure which, in results, does not seem at all proportionate.
St. Mark's Church is reached by walking straight along the Eastern Road, past the College, the Hospital, until it is reached at the extreme end of the long road. Indeed, St. Mark's is so near the boundaries of the parish that in the petition for consecration one of the pleas set forth was that the church should not only afford accommodation to parishioners of Brighton, but also that it would meet the convenience of numbers of the inhabitants of the western portion of the adjoining parish of Rottingdean.
The church, which stands within a spacious enclosure, has no external beauty except in the fine proportions of its tower and spire, the former of which contains a complete and sweet peal of bells, and also has a large clock, which chimes the quarters very musically. Inside, the church is not much more handsome than it is externally. Entrance is attained at the tower, or west end, where are three doors, which give the visitor a first look straight down the church to the east end. The roof is of open timberwork, seven plain windows give light on each side, and there are galleries round the church at the west end and two sides. These galleries have elaborately carved oak fronts, but are not of that handsome appearance which might have been anticipated from the amount lavished on them. They are supported by light iron columns, coloured (but with faint success) to resemble stone, and extending up to the roof, so that they discharge the double duty of supporting both galleries and roof. These pillars are rather too attenuated to be in harmony with the style of the church, but they serve the secondary purpose of forming aisle and nave divisions between the seats on the floor.
The seats are all of open oak wainscot work, those which are appropriated having doors on hem, and the rest being without doors. The pew system is in full swing at this church, for while it gives sitting accommodation for 1,019 persons, 100 of these seats are appropriated to the inmates of St. Mary's Hall, 376 are entirely free, the remainder are let. The high preaching pulpit on one side and the semi-pulpit, or reading desk, on the other side almost entirely block up the altar from the general sight of the congregation, only the few who manage to get into particular positions being able to watch the sacred place where the highest, holiest rite of the Church is celebrated.
The pulpit and reading desk are very handsome work, but they are somewhat out of place in their position in thus obstructing a view which ought to be free and uninterrupted, as far as the structure of the church will allow it, to every member of the congregation. There is no chancel to the church, but the east end terminates in a recess formed by a handsome large Gothic arch. This recess railed off, forms the sanctuary, and is decorated in highly effective style, though without any regard being paid to the now common ritual adornment, which make the altars of so many churches in England revert to the type of beauty they have presented from the times of the Primitive Church up to the comparatively recent period when the cold cloak of Gregorian indifference or Cromwellian Puritanism threatened to extinguish the last sparks of vigour in the Church.
The decorations at St. Mark's are in bright vivid, and somewhat glaring colours, which are not in good taste and do not accord with the generally received notions of church decorations, which, always rich should never be gaudy, always bright and elevating to the mind, never should consist of pretty colours, stuck on for the purpose of obtaining a mere visual and childish delight by their radiance. At the back of the altar are painted up the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. This enclosure of the chancel, and the decorations were defrayed by the present Marquis of Bristol.
But decidedly the great beauty of the church is its magnificent east window, which forms a splendid contrast to the weak altar adornments below it. This window was erected by subscription as a memorial to the late Marquis of Bristol, the generous founder of the church. In the centre light are two divisions, the upper one showing the ascending Saviour rising up to His Home of Glory, and expressing by His stretched-out arms that He is in the act of blessing His disciples; while in the lower division St. Mark is depicted as if in the act of writing the last verses of his portion of Gospel narrative.
The north side light shows our Lord and the disciples descending from Jerusalem towards Gethsemane after the Supper in an upper chamber, the Gracious Master is apparently soothing and comforting, with His kindly words, the sorrowful followers, who are so loth to part from Him "who spake as never man spake." The light in the south side displays a group of disciples looking upwards at their ascending Lord, shown in the centre light. This subject is taken from Acts, chap, ii., and the two angels there alluded to are seen addressing the disciples. A brass plate, bearing the following inscription, is attached to the bottom of the window:-
In memoriam Honorarissimam Frederici Gulielmi, Prmi Marchionis de Bristol. Fundatoris hujus eccclesiae, Nati, A.D. 1769; Mortii, xv. Mar. 1859.
A monumental tablet is also erected to the memory of this revered benefactor of the Church, its cost having been defrayed by Mr Laurence Peel and the Rev. E. B. Elliott. This tablet, which is of Caen stone, bears the following inscription:-
"Fenestra orientalis tripartita hujus ecclesiaf a quibusdam amicia hic sacra colentibus aliisque opp di hujusce civibus, grato animo posita est. In memoriam Freierici Gulielmi, primi Marchionis de Bristol. Nobilitate insignis munificcatia insignior, divitiis non sibimet, sed aliis, uti delectatus est. Ecclesiam hanc, propriis suis sumptibus quoad muros extructam, cultui divino dedicandam in aliorum manus transtulit. Aulse Sanctae Mariae, proxime adjacenti, agrum pretiosum pro situ donavit. Hospitali Brightonensi sacellum addidit. Coemeterium parochiale trans collem large amplificavit. Usque ad extremam senectutem vita protensa, facultatibus mentis vix languidioribus cordis benevolentia, uti prius, minime imminuta fruebatur. Tandem, morbo lethali correptus, religionis consolationibus sacraque communione, nanu filii ipsius ministrata, refectus, placide, familia sua circumstante, in fide Christi obdormivit. Quod illius mortale erat in crypta familiari subter ecclesiam ickworthiensem sepultum jacet. Ibi, ut speramus, beatam resurrectionem expectat, quando qui olim ascendit rursus, secundum promissum, gloriose descendet; suos sibi undique et mortuos coacturus. Jesus Hominum Salvator."
St. Mark's Church was opened on S. Matthew's Day, the 21st September, 1849, and there was evidently great interest taken in the opening services, amongst those present on that important occasion being, besides the Bishop, the Kev. Lord Arthur Hervey, Archdeacon Hoare, the Dean of Ely, the Vicar of Brighton, and between thirty and forty other clergymen. In the petition praying for consecration some interesting statistics were set forth showing that whereas at that date the population of Brighton was 46,660, there was only church accommodation for 12,715. The sermon was preached by the Bishop, and was a most eloquent one, and at the conclusion of the sermon an offertory amounting to £154 was taken, leaving a debt of a little over £600 on the church.
After service, the Kev. H. Venn Elliott entertained about one hundred of the principal personages present at the consecration, and about sixty of the young ladies of S. Mary's Hall, to a sumptuous luncheon. The Rev. F. Reade was the first incumbent of the church; and he was succeeded by the Rev. Edward Bishop Elliott, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was ordained priest in 1827, and appointed to the incumbency of S. Mark's in 1853. Mr Elliott has remained incumbent of S. Mark's from that time till now. He is well-known as a most uncompromising Protestant, and an ardent member of the Evangelist party. In literature also his name is well known. He is one of the trustees of St. Mary's Hall, and he is also an active supporter of the Church Missionary Society, to which, up till the last annual meeting, he was local secretary. Mr Elliott has for curate the Rev. W. T. Hindley, M.A., of Sidney Sussex, College, Cambridge, who was ordained priest in 1869, and appointed to S. Mark's in 1872.
As may be expected from the very decided Protestantism of the incumbent, the services at St. Mark's are of a very low type, even to deadly coldness. The weather was exceedingly tempestuous on the Sunday afternoon when we visited the church for evensong, and this might account for the very scanty congregation which had assembled, and which almost entirely consisted of ladies. There is a pretty good organ, but no choir that we could discover, and the service was simply got over with as little trouble as possible. Mr Elliott, who was attired in the orthodox large surplice, and wore black kid gloves, "preached" the prayers, and Mr Hindly, in the mournful black gown, sang or intoned the sermon, the order of method in which the service should be rendered being thus exactly reversed. We do not mean to say that Mr Elliott purposely preached the prayers, - he probably only meant to read them effectively, but his manner certainly conveyed the impression that he was endeavouring to preach. Neither do we wish to state that the preacher wilfully sang his sermon, we only desire to convey what seems to us the truest description of the manner in which he delivered his discourse. The service is entirely plain, and the clergymen alone take part in it, for the inaudible manner in which a few of the congregation whispered out a few of the responses, cannot be taken into account as part of a public service The hymn book used is a special one, compiled by the Rev. H. V. Elliott. There is service every Sunday morning at eleven o'clock, and the evening service is at 3.30 in winter, and. 6.30 in summer. The Holy Communion is celebrated at mid-day on the first Sunday in each month, and also on the chief Festivals.
St. Mark's has a conventional district attached to, it as a chapel-of-ease to the Parish Church, and it possesses efficient day schools, which are at present quite full, there being 115 boys and 169 girls and infants on the roll. Though not strictly in connection with St. Mark's as one of its institutions, we may here refer to St. Mary's Hall, as being intimately associated with the church and with the Elliott family, who have taken so great an interest in it.
St. Mary's is a handsome spacious building designed for the education on very easy terms of 100 daughters of clergymen. So long as it has been in existence it has done this work most thoroughly and successfully, for in the first twenty-five years of its existence 700 pupils passed through it, and between 503 and 600 clergymen reaped the benefits it confers in their family circles. The Marquis of Bristol was a great benefactor to the Hall, and at various times gave it in money or land something like £2,000. The Hall is under the patronage of the Primate, and the Bishop of the diocese is the President, and the school is vested in the following Trustees, who, with the Bishop, have also the patronage of St. Mark's Church: - The Earl of Chichester, Mr Laurence Peel, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Mr S. A. Hankey, the Rev. Canon Babington, the Rev. E. B. Elliott, and Mr A. Smith, M.P.
Each child admitted pays £20 per annum for board, lodging, and the educational advantages afforded, and the conditions of admission are that the pupil must be the daughter of one of the poorer clergy of the English Church, whether serving at home or abroad, orphans being considered to have a prior claim, and the income of the father, the amount of subscription of the person recommending the applicant, and the intention to make the child a governess are points considered in deciding an application. It is noticeable that the education is specially intended to fit the young ladies for governesses, and that they are in every way encouraged to devote themselves to such a life. No doubt this institution does a vast amount of good, and will do more in its generation, and it must prove a great benefit to many of the less fortunate clergy of the school of theology taught at St. Mark's.
St. Mark's, Kemp Town, is a church of no very great architectural pretensions, but still one which has claims of its own to attention by reason of associations that link it to one of the important educational institutions of the town, and keep in honoured recollection the deeds of a revered and popular nobleman. The growing population in the now prosperous and eminently respectable district of Kemp Town were for some time without a church in their immediate neighbourhood, and at length when St. Mary's Hall was completed it was found there was no church conveniently near in which the pupils might attend public worship, there seemed to be a likelihood of the inhabitants having their requirements met.
For the Marquis of Bristol, a most philanthropic and generous nobleman, who had contributed to the erection of St. Mary's Hall, anxious that the inmates of this institution should have the benefit of a church in their immediate neighbourhood, in 1839 made a present to the Trustees of the site on which St. Mark's stands. Following up one liberal deed by another, he initiated the work of building the church by paying £2,000 for the erection of the framework, and he would have continued the generous work till its foil completion, if the Church Commissioners had not refused their sanction to his labours. Determined that the church should be finished, however, even if he was not the direct instrument honoured, the Marquis handed over the property to the trustees of St. Mary's Hall, and afterwards added to his past generosity by giving a donation of £500 towards the building fund. But the work did not proceed with rapidity, it was a slow and painful task, and quite eight years elapsed before the church was finished, the cost, additional to what had been given by the Marquis of Bristol, amounting to £5,000, or making a total cost altogether, exclusive of the value of the site, of £7,000.
One of the trustees became individually responsible for the £5,000, in order that the work might be no longer delayed, and in discharge of this amount he altogether received £4,830 5s. 8d., the amount raised by subscriptions and offertories, so that he was not called upon to make up a very large sum out of his own pocket. A considerable portion of the cost of the building was absorbed by the fittings, which are of carved oak, and cost £3,000, an expenditure which, in results, does not seem at all proportionate.
St. Mark's Church is reached by walking straight along the Eastern Road, past the College, the Hospital, until it is reached at the extreme end of the long road. Indeed, St. Mark's is so near the boundaries of the parish that in the petition for consecration one of the pleas set forth was that the church should not only afford accommodation to parishioners of Brighton, but also that it would meet the convenience of numbers of the inhabitants of the western portion of the adjoining parish of Rottingdean.
The church, which stands within a spacious enclosure, has no external beauty except in the fine proportions of its tower and spire, the former of which contains a complete and sweet peal of bells, and also has a large clock, which chimes the quarters very musically. Inside, the church is not much more handsome than it is externally. Entrance is attained at the tower, or west end, where are three doors, which give the visitor a first look straight down the church to the east end. The roof is of open timberwork, seven plain windows give light on each side, and there are galleries round the church at the west end and two sides. These galleries have elaborately carved oak fronts, but are not of that handsome appearance which might have been anticipated from the amount lavished on them. They are supported by light iron columns, coloured (but with faint success) to resemble stone, and extending up to the roof, so that they discharge the double duty of supporting both galleries and roof. These pillars are rather too attenuated to be in harmony with the style of the church, but they serve the secondary purpose of forming aisle and nave divisions between the seats on the floor.
The seats are all of open oak wainscot work, those which are appropriated having doors on hem, and the rest being without doors. The pew system is in full swing at this church, for while it gives sitting accommodation for 1,019 persons, 100 of these seats are appropriated to the inmates of St. Mary's Hall, 376 are entirely free, the remainder are let. The high preaching pulpit on one side and the semi-pulpit, or reading desk, on the other side almost entirely block up the altar from the general sight of the congregation, only the few who manage to get into particular positions being able to watch the sacred place where the highest, holiest rite of the Church is celebrated.
The pulpit and reading desk are very handsome work, but they are somewhat out of place in their position in thus obstructing a view which ought to be free and uninterrupted, as far as the structure of the church will allow it, to every member of the congregation. There is no chancel to the church, but the east end terminates in a recess formed by a handsome large Gothic arch. This recess railed off, forms the sanctuary, and is decorated in highly effective style, though without any regard being paid to the now common ritual adornment, which make the altars of so many churches in England revert to the type of beauty they have presented from the times of the Primitive Church up to the comparatively recent period when the cold cloak of Gregorian indifference or Cromwellian Puritanism threatened to extinguish the last sparks of vigour in the Church.
The decorations at St. Mark's are in bright vivid, and somewhat glaring colours, which are not in good taste and do not accord with the generally received notions of church decorations, which, always rich should never be gaudy, always bright and elevating to the mind, never should consist of pretty colours, stuck on for the purpose of obtaining a mere visual and childish delight by their radiance. At the back of the altar are painted up the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. This enclosure of the chancel, and the decorations were defrayed by the present Marquis of Bristol.
But decidedly the great beauty of the church is its magnificent east window, which forms a splendid contrast to the weak altar adornments below it. This window was erected by subscription as a memorial to the late Marquis of Bristol, the generous founder of the church. In the centre light are two divisions, the upper one showing the ascending Saviour rising up to His Home of Glory, and expressing by His stretched-out arms that He is in the act of blessing His disciples; while in the lower division St. Mark is depicted as if in the act of writing the last verses of his portion of Gospel narrative.
The north side light shows our Lord and the disciples descending from Jerusalem towards Gethsemane after the Supper in an upper chamber, the Gracious Master is apparently soothing and comforting, with His kindly words, the sorrowful followers, who are so loth to part from Him "who spake as never man spake." The light in the south side displays a group of disciples looking upwards at their ascending Lord, shown in the centre light. This subject is taken from Acts, chap, ii., and the two angels there alluded to are seen addressing the disciples. A brass plate, bearing the following inscription, is attached to the bottom of the window:-
In memoriam Honorarissimam Frederici Gulielmi, Prmi Marchionis de Bristol. Fundatoris hujus eccclesiae, Nati, A.D. 1769; Mortii, xv. Mar. 1859.
A monumental tablet is also erected to the memory of this revered benefactor of the Church, its cost having been defrayed by Mr Laurence Peel and the Rev. E. B. Elliott. This tablet, which is of Caen stone, bears the following inscription:-
"Fenestra orientalis tripartita hujus ecclesiaf a quibusdam amicia hic sacra colentibus aliisque opp di hujusce civibus, grato animo posita est. In memoriam Freierici Gulielmi, primi Marchionis de Bristol. Nobilitate insignis munificcatia insignior, divitiis non sibimet, sed aliis, uti delectatus est. Ecclesiam hanc, propriis suis sumptibus quoad muros extructam, cultui divino dedicandam in aliorum manus transtulit. Aulse Sanctae Mariae, proxime adjacenti, agrum pretiosum pro situ donavit. Hospitali Brightonensi sacellum addidit. Coemeterium parochiale trans collem large amplificavit. Usque ad extremam senectutem vita protensa, facultatibus mentis vix languidioribus cordis benevolentia, uti prius, minime imminuta fruebatur. Tandem, morbo lethali correptus, religionis consolationibus sacraque communione, nanu filii ipsius ministrata, refectus, placide, familia sua circumstante, in fide Christi obdormivit. Quod illius mortale erat in crypta familiari subter ecclesiam ickworthiensem sepultum jacet. Ibi, ut speramus, beatam resurrectionem expectat, quando qui olim ascendit rursus, secundum promissum, gloriose descendet; suos sibi undique et mortuos coacturus. Jesus Hominum Salvator."
St. Mark's Church was opened on S. Matthew's Day, the 21st September, 1849, and there was evidently great interest taken in the opening services, amongst those present on that important occasion being, besides the Bishop, the Kev. Lord Arthur Hervey, Archdeacon Hoare, the Dean of Ely, the Vicar of Brighton, and between thirty and forty other clergymen. In the petition praying for consecration some interesting statistics were set forth showing that whereas at that date the population of Brighton was 46,660, there was only church accommodation for 12,715. The sermon was preached by the Bishop, and was a most eloquent one, and at the conclusion of the sermon an offertory amounting to £154 was taken, leaving a debt of a little over £600 on the church.
After service, the Kev. H. Venn Elliott entertained about one hundred of the principal personages present at the consecration, and about sixty of the young ladies of S. Mary's Hall, to a sumptuous luncheon. The Rev. F. Reade was the first incumbent of the church; and he was succeeded by the Rev. Edward Bishop Elliott, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was ordained priest in 1827, and appointed to the incumbency of S. Mark's in 1853. Mr Elliott has remained incumbent of S. Mark's from that time till now. He is well-known as a most uncompromising Protestant, and an ardent member of the Evangelist party. In literature also his name is well known. He is one of the trustees of St. Mary's Hall, and he is also an active supporter of the Church Missionary Society, to which, up till the last annual meeting, he was local secretary. Mr Elliott has for curate the Rev. W. T. Hindley, M.A., of Sidney Sussex, College, Cambridge, who was ordained priest in 1869, and appointed to S. Mark's in 1872.
As may be expected from the very decided Protestantism of the incumbent, the services at St. Mark's are of a very low type, even to deadly coldness. The weather was exceedingly tempestuous on the Sunday afternoon when we visited the church for evensong, and this might account for the very scanty congregation which had assembled, and which almost entirely consisted of ladies. There is a pretty good organ, but no choir that we could discover, and the service was simply got over with as little trouble as possible. Mr Elliott, who was attired in the orthodox large surplice, and wore black kid gloves, "preached" the prayers, and Mr Hindly, in the mournful black gown, sang or intoned the sermon, the order of method in which the service should be rendered being thus exactly reversed. We do not mean to say that Mr Elliott purposely preached the prayers, - he probably only meant to read them effectively, but his manner certainly conveyed the impression that he was endeavouring to preach. Neither do we wish to state that the preacher wilfully sang his sermon, we only desire to convey what seems to us the truest description of the manner in which he delivered his discourse. The service is entirely plain, and the clergymen alone take part in it, for the inaudible manner in which a few of the congregation whispered out a few of the responses, cannot be taken into account as part of a public service The hymn book used is a special one, compiled by the Rev. H. V. Elliott. There is service every Sunday morning at eleven o'clock, and the evening service is at 3.30 in winter, and. 6.30 in summer. The Holy Communion is celebrated at mid-day on the first Sunday in each month, and also on the chief Festivals.
St. Mark's has a conventional district attached to, it as a chapel-of-ease to the Parish Church, and it possesses efficient day schools, which are at present quite full, there being 115 boys and 169 girls and infants on the roll. Though not strictly in connection with St. Mark's as one of its institutions, we may here refer to St. Mary's Hall, as being intimately associated with the church and with the Elliott family, who have taken so great an interest in it.
St. Mary's is a handsome spacious building designed for the education on very easy terms of 100 daughters of clergymen. So long as it has been in existence it has done this work most thoroughly and successfully, for in the first twenty-five years of its existence 700 pupils passed through it, and between 503 and 600 clergymen reaped the benefits it confers in their family circles. The Marquis of Bristol was a great benefactor to the Hall, and at various times gave it in money or land something like £2,000. The Hall is under the patronage of the Primate, and the Bishop of the diocese is the President, and the school is vested in the following Trustees, who, with the Bishop, have also the patronage of St. Mark's Church: - The Earl of Chichester, Mr Laurence Peel, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Mr S. A. Hankey, the Rev. Canon Babington, the Rev. E. B. Elliott, and Mr A. Smith, M.P.
Each child admitted pays £20 per annum for board, lodging, and the educational advantages afforded, and the conditions of admission are that the pupil must be the daughter of one of the poorer clergy of the English Church, whether serving at home or abroad, orphans being considered to have a prior claim, and the income of the father, the amount of subscription of the person recommending the applicant, and the intention to make the child a governess are points considered in deciding an application. It is noticeable that the education is specially intended to fit the young ladies for governesses, and that they are in every way encouraged to devote themselves to such a life. No doubt this institution does a vast amount of good, and will do more in its generation, and it must prove a great benefit to many of the less fortunate clergy of the school of theology taught at St. Mark's.
