Lancing College Chapel: A Question of Attribution

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Lancing College Chapel: A Question of AttributionAuthor(s): John ElliottSource: Architectural History, Vol. 39 (1996), pp. 114-123Published by: SAHGB Publications LimitedStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1568609 .

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Lancing College Chapel:

A Question ofAttribution by JOHN ELLIOTT

Conventional knowledge has long credited five architects with varying degrees of responsibility for the design of Lancing College Chapel; the main personae being Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812-55), his pupil William Slater (1819-72), Carpenter's son Richard Herbert Carpenter (1841-93), Temple Lushington Moore

(1856-1920) and Stephen Dykes Bower (1903-94). Of these Richard Herbert

Carpenter is usually cited as the key individual, being identified as the one who originated the executed design. However, recent research has shown that while R. H. Carpenter played an important role in converting an architectural dream into structural reality, it was the less well-known William Slater who was responsible for conceiving much of what Carpenter later developed. This paper recounts the results of these researches, reconsiders the origins of the designs, and sketches their evolution during the nineteenth century.

Lancing College, like its sister colleges at Hurstpierpoint, Ardingly, Denstone, Ellesmere and Worksop, was built for Nathaniel Woodard, an Anglican clergyman who devoted his life to the education of the middle classes. In March 1848 Woodard published A Plea for the Middle Classes, a document which advocated schools which would 'provide a good and complete educationfor the middle classes, [and] at such a charge as will make it availablefor most of them'.l Woodard argued that the 'political and moral well-being of the country depend[ed] upon the middle classes', their education being essential to 'peace and even national prosperity.'2

By the middle classes Woodard did not just mean 'gentlemen of small incomes, solicitors and surgeons ... unbeneficed Clergymen, naval and military officers &c., &c', but also those

which may be designated the 'trade-class' . . [comprising] persons of very different grades, from the small huckster ... up, step by step, through third and second rate retail shops, publicans, gin-palace keepers, &c., to the highly influential and respectable tradesman, whose chief dealings are with the higher ranks of society.3

He argued that these people were 'byfar the majority of the Church's children', yet they were neglected, and were thus vulnerable to the seduction of materialism. They 'enter on the duties of life', Woodard noted, 'without any rule except that which is given them by the world around them [and] They rush heart and soul into the bustle and cravings after this world's goods.'4 The result was that 'till the Church do educate



LANCING COLLEGE CHAPEL

and train up the middle classes, she can never effectively educate the poor. [And] all national and parochial schools must to a great extent prove unsuccessful.'5

A chapel was central to Woodard's style of education, as without a chapel 'we have no home. No Centre to our Work. No Spiritual starting point.'6 However, in addition to being a spiritual base, the intended chapel at Lancing was also a defensive reaction against the gains of Roman Catholicism, a point Woodard made in a letter to Lord Salisbury when he wrote:

it is mortifying to find one papist family ie Duke of Norfolk & his Duchess, building costly religious establishments all along the south coast, and we of the Church of England, with the whole country at our back, doing nothing.7

His response was that Lancing College Chapel should be an icon, an icon to Anglicanism, an icon to clerical paternalism, an icon with a size and position that would dominate the surrounding area, and with dimensions that would 'make Arundel "Cathedral" look small'.8

The buildings erected at Lancing were first conceived in 1852 when Richard Cromwell Carpenter produced drawings for a college at Shoreham, a complex which comprised a double quadrangle arrangement, and included a seven-bay chapel in a style that was unmistakably both medieval and English (Fig. i). By i855 the site had changed to Lancing, and the chapel had become the dining hall, a new chapel being indicated by foundations which extended beyond the most eastern quadrangle. With the death of R. C. Carpenter in 18 55 responsibility for designing the complex passed to his pupil and successor William Slater, and it was he who designed the chapel, switching the style from a simple echo of things medieval and English to a more assertive and demonstrative form of Early French.

This switch in authorship was recorded by the Ecclesiologist and the Illustrated London News, the former saying that the works at Lancing had 'devolved upon Mr Slater, who has designed the chapel',9 while the latter reported that 'The buildings are proceeding under the direction of Mr W. Slater . . . who has added to the design a chapel which, although contemplated, had not been designed at the date of the death of the late architect.'1

The transformation in style which accompanied this change in responsibility is illustrated in three lithographs and one drawing. A design for the new site at Lancing was recorded as a lithograph and appeared in the Ecclesiologist during 1855, an illustration which simply showed the foundations for a chapel (Fig. 2). Then in I856 the Illustrated London News published a lithograph which showed a chapel and tower, plus changes to the college buildings (Fig. 3). An undated lithograph which was signed 'R. C. Carpenter - W. Slater Architects' shows the chapel and tower, plus more elaborate amendments to the college buildings (Fig. 4). Finally there is an unsigned and undated pen-and-ink drawing which is similar to the latter lithograph, and which was probably produced by Slater around 1855-56 (Fig. 5).

These illustrations plus the reports in the Ecclesiologist and the Illustrated London News show that Slater's contribution to the school buildings at Lancing was somewhat greater than is normally admitted, R. C. Carpenter providing the plan and general arrangements, Slater being responsible for working out much of the detail and for

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ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 39: 1996

.t ? ,*i:: - .:: . .i:: ..:; : .-i Fig. I. 'The Proposed College of

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In 8. 6 the main priority was the school - services being held below the dining,/'

hail - and it was 28 July i868 before the foundation stone of the chapel was laid." In

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apsidal chancel. In addition there was an add e asis on e oratio, with te.. ...

addition of two picturesque eastern towers, with crocketed gables replacing the buttresses, and a balustrade to the roof line (Figs 6 and ........ 2 The Builder reportd It is intended to build the chapel on a very large . .......agnificent scale, to serve as a pl..........e of

.great campanile at the south-west angle, 350 ft gh... The arcades have clustered columns..:

two-light windows, and the whole length is groined. The height from the choir floor to the

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providing the initial chapel designs - for an apsidal structure 175 feet in length, with aisles, flying buttresses and a dominant south-western tower.

In I856 the main priority was the school - services being held below the dining hall - andit was 28 July 1868 before the foundation stone of the chapel was laid. In the interim Slater had amended his earlier design, the plan now including a three-bay ante-chapel which was connected to the tower, a nine-bay nave and a five-sided apsidal chancel. In addition there was an added emphasis on elaboration, with the addition of two picturesque eastern towers, with crocketed gables replacing the simpler drip mouldings above the lerestorey windows, pi nnacles being added to the buttresses, and a balustrade to the roof line (Figs 6 and 7)- The Builder reported that: It is intended to build the chapel on a very large and magnificent scale, to serve as a place of worship for the three great Sussex schools on all grand gatherings of the college.l3 The plan consists of an apsidal choir, I70 ft long (inside) and 30 ft wide, with an ante-chapel of the same width, and 45 ft long, north and south aisles, north-western and north-eastern towers, and a great campanile at the south-west angle, 350 ft high ... The arcades have clustered columns. Above this is a triforium stage, of richly-moulded lancet arches on clustered piers. This triforium is continued round the apse, and pierced as [sic] windows. The clearstory has large two-light windows, and the whole length is groined. The height from the choir floor to the underside of the groining will be 87 ft. The aisles have two-light windows and are groined. The flying buttresses on the south side are double, a cloister extending along the southern wall of the aisle... The total height of the apse to the ridge of the roof will be about ISo ft."4

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Fig. 2. 'View of the Proposed Buildings at Fig. 3. 'St Mary and St Nicholas College, Lancing, Sussex' (also published in Lancing, Sussex' Illustrated London News, Ecclesiologist 16 [1855], pp. 136-37) 26January 1856, p. 104 (Lancing College (Lancing College Archive) Archive)

The upper part of the towers - that above the choir parapets - had highly canopied niches with figures, the whole being topped by a short spire and pinnacles.15 The entrance was to be at the western end, with a cloister connecting the chapel and school buildings, the western wall being dominated by a 'great rose-window'.16 However, the main feature was the campanile (Fig. 8), a 35o-feet structure which the Builder described thus: The belfry stage has on each face two windows, of two lancet-lights in each, with richly- clustered monials. Octagonal turrets run up at each angle, and are terminated with rich pinnacles. The height to the top of the parapet of the square portion of the tower will be about 200 ft. Above this point it becomes octagonal, with large pedimented windows on each face, surmounted by a low spire of stone.17

While there may be some room for debate about the size and siting of the chapel as an icon of Anglicanism, there can be little room for debate about the tower, a structure which was to be a dominating beacon of Anglicanism, and one clearly intended as a rebuff to the 'Papist' Duke of Norfolk and his Arundel Cathedral. However, it appears that the tower was also intended as an emotional mission to seamen, the Builder reporting that it would 'have in it a powerful light, supplied by Trinity House, for the great height of this tower will cause it to be one of the most prominent objects on the south coast',18 while Woodard announced that at its top there would be an

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Fig. 4. 'View of S Nicholas College, Lancing' (also published inJ. Mordaunt Crook (ed.), C. L. Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival (Leicester, 1970), oppositep. 224) (Lancing College Archive)

Fig. 5. Undated pen and ink drawing (Lancing College Archive)

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Fig. 6. 'Chapel of the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas, Lancing', Builder, 26 December 1868, p. 944 (Lancing College Archive)

Fig. 7. Drawing, 1868 (Lancing College Archive)

Oratory, or small Chapel, where a Chaplain and other devout persons may, in all great and dangerous storms, pass their time in prayer for the deliverance of those in peril of shipwreck; or in any case that they may be mercifully supported by a Divine power to meet their fate in patience and in a saving faith [while the light above] would be known to all sailors; and ...

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Fig. 8. 'Chapel of the College of St. Mary Fig. 9. Lancing Chapel interior (A. H. and St. Nicholas, Lancing, Sussex', Gomme) Builder, 26 December 1868, p. 944 (Lancing College Archive)

they would learn that there was a Chapel in which prayers were being offered to God for their salvation.19

Progress was slow, and responsibility for the chapel designs passed from Slater to Richard Herbert Carpenter, initially alone and then with Benjamin Ingelow.20 In the process the two eastern towers were shortened and simplified, and eventually the great tower was abandoned because of the cost involved in sinking the foundations some fifty feet so that they could be located on solid rock.

However, while Slater may have conceived the chapel design, it was 'Young Carpenter' who worked out the detail, who argued with Woodard about the way the walls would be coursed in the crypt, on which type of stone would be used, and how the wall faces would be finished.2 It was he who worked out the detail of the chapel roof, suggesting: what we should like on the Apex of the roof is a figure of S. Michael holding the Cross (in metal about 8ft high). He is the saint for high places and he is symbolical as guardian of the church - and he would really be the Guardian of our Chapel as the lightning conductor would

120




come down from the staff of the cross. At St Chapelle at Paris - S Louis put S Michael & it was admirably restored by Le Duc.22

It was also 'Young Carpenter' who worked out the detail for the intended tower, an arrangement which he described thus:

You will notice the East Gablet in the Spire & the S circles forming a cross like the constellation of the 'Southern Cross' - this would be repeated in the south & west - The Gablet towards the land would be blank. The low oratory would be under the light chamber & above the bells ... the effect will I think be very good & carry out your wishes in a novel and striking manner.23

Carpenter was also involved in working out the internal arrangements, and

specifically the levels and groining. Of the latter he wrote, 'I am very pleased with the groining of Lancing Chapel crypt - it is better than any in England I think',24 and on 18 January 1875 he produced a design for the eastern end of the chapel, an arrangement which rose through five levels, and where some twenty steps elevated the altar from the nave, the whole being terminated by a large reredos of the Crucified Christ.

However, the ravages of time meant that it was Temple Moore who - in I912-20- added a variant of the cloister conceived by Slater plus two internal chantries; and it fell to yet another architect, Stephen Dykes Bower (1903-94) to complete the chapel, a man who was a Victorian in spirit, though one born a century late; a man who Anthony Symondson suggested provided 'the closest living link with the Gothic style in English church architecture', someone who was a 'throw-back to the nineteenth century'.25 Appropriately it was he who completed the west front in the I970s, and added the great rose window, the largest built in England since those in the transepts of Westminster Abbey.26

As the nineteenth century progressed so the architectural pallet of precedents widened, a movement that had its roots in the railways and the greater travel opportunities they made possible. So also these changes are discernible in the design elements which were produced by the two Carpenters and by Slater. For R. C. Carpenter the primary focus was domestic, the emphasis being on 'measuring and drawing old churches',27 especially those in Northamptonshire.28 For Slater this domestic base was enhanced with a more extensive pallet, one fed by visits to 'the chief cities of France, Italy and Belgium',29 while for R. H. Carpenter knowledge of France and Germany was enhanced by an interest in non-Christian architecture and visits to Egypt, Moorish Spain, Kairawan and Damascus, as well as to Malta.30

Hence Lancing College Chapel was conceived by R. C. Carpenter with medieval English precedents. It was then designed, developed and elaborated by Slater who changed the style to one which echoed the three-storey formula used in the cathedrals of northern France, though French precedents with just a hint of things German, an aisleless apse, and a picturesque effect not dissimilar to that existing at Oberwesel.3" It was then built under the supervision of R. H. Carpenter, the design being worked- out and modified to unify the English and French heritage, but strangely without any reference to the non-Christian elements that so fascinated him. According to John Summerson the windowed triforium in Slater's initial design derives from St Denis while the buttresses 'have their prototypes in Beauvais and Noyon',32 though the

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ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY 39: I996

Fig. Io. Lancing Chapelfrom the south-east (A. H. Gomme)

'vaulting is pure Westminster and the mouldings are as English as they can be'.33 The key which enables these streams to be reconciled was - according to Summerson - the fact that in working out the detail R. H. Carpenter selected a phase when English and French Gothic were united, that 'phase of French Gothic which connects with

However, a careful comparison of Slater's drawings and the building as executed shows that the external changes introduced by R. H. Carpenter were more decorative than structural, much of Slater's i868 design surviving. The plan remained largely unchanged, the balustrade and pinnacles survived; as did the crocketed gables above the clerestorey windows in the apse, such changes as were made being mainly concentrated on the choir and aisle windows, where couplets gave way to more elaborate three-light affairs, and where the crocketed gables in the choir clerestorey were replaced by simpler drip mouldings.

The result (Figs 9 and io) is an affirmation of things English, of things Reformed, and of things Catholic; an affirmation of a religious dogma that acknowledged its common Catholic heritage, yet rejected Roman Catholicism as strongly as it rejected the ever-growing tide of secularism. Lancing College Chapel stands as an icon of this particular brand of Christianity, as a statement of those beliefs, and of their superiority to the alternatives. Sadly the final icon - the tower - fell victim to rising costs and

I22




the need for ever-deepening foundations, a fate which well epitomizes late Victorian Anglicanism, and its eventual submergence beneath a tide of materialism.

A CKNOWLED GEMENTS

I am indebted to the headmaster and staff of Lancing College, and to the archivist Janet Pennington in particular, for assistance with the related research and for permission to cite from documents in the College archive.

NOTES

I A Pleafor the Middle Classes, p. 3. 2 Ibid., p. 4. 3 Ibid., pp. 4-5. 4 Ibid., p. 6. 5 Ibid., p. 7. 6 Letter to Henry Martin Gibbs dated 12 January 1882 (Lancing College Archive). 7 Letter to Lord Salisbury dated 28 December 1882 (Lancing College Archive). 8 Ibid. 9 Ecclesiologist, 16 (1855), p. 220. io Illustrated London News, 26January I856, p. I04. 11 The crypt being dedicated on 26 October 1875. I2 See two drawings of 1868 in the Lancing College Archive. 13 These were the colleges at Lancing, Hurstpierpoint and Ardingly. 14 Builder, 15 August I868, p. 602.

15 Ibid. i6 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Leaflet written by Woodard dated 1882 (Lancing College Archive). 20 R. H. Carpenter was in partnership with Benjamin Ingelow from 1875 until his death in 1893. 21 See letters from Carpenter to Woodard dated 26 April, 24 May, 15 June, 30 November and 2 December 1871 (Lancing College Archive). 22 Letter Carpenter to Woodard dated 1885 (Lancing College Archive). 23 Letter Carpenter to Woodard dated 13 March 1882 (Lancing College Archive). 24 Letter Carpenter to Woodard dated I I June 1874 (Lancing College Archive). 25 A. J. Symondson, 'Stephen Dykes Bower and Victorian Church Architecture', The Victorian Society Annual 1994, (I995), p. 50. 26 Ibid., p. 51. 27 See the obituary written by A.J. Beresford Hope and published in the Ecclesiologist, I6 (I855), p. 139. 28 RIBA Transactions 1873-74, p. 214. 29 Ibid., p. 215. 30 He was responsible for several illustrations published by the Builder. For instance illustrations of restoration work in France at Charmont, Limoges, Lyon, Nimes and Leon (Builder, 1880, i, p. 666 and I88I, i, p. 643), plus photographs of the cloisters at Wurzburgin (Builder, 1883, ii, p. 182). Letters in Lancing College Archive and the RIBA, plus other articles in the Builder refer to visits Carpenter made to Cairo, to Alhambra, to the mosques of Cordova, Seville, Damascus and Kairawan (see RIBA LC/I3/5/3I, LC/I7/8/2, LC/2I/9/II; RIBA Transactions XXXLLL, pp. IoI and 116; Builder, 1879, p. 808. 31 According to R. H. Carpenter his father had based his design for town churches upon the Austin Friars church in London and on the German hall churches. At the bidding of the Ecclesiologist Slater adopted a form of domestic voussoir which was borrowed from Nmrnberg, and R. C. Carpenter had made a feature of an oriel which was most probably borrowed from Sebaldershofin Niimberg. 32 John Summerson, 'The Style of the Chapel', Lancing College Magazine (I955), p. I6. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid.

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Lancing College Chapel: A Question of Attribution

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