Heritage Now #10

CASEWORK

BEXHILL ON SEA, EAST SUSSEX, ST BARNABAS

St Barnabas is a substantial building with, in effect, two naves and two aisles, the combined creation of Sir Arthur Blomfield (1891), his son, C. J. Blomfield and L. T. Moore who rebuilt much of the chancel in 1935. The church has been under threat of demoli tion for some time, especially after a fire in 2005. A scheme to form a doctor’s surgery in part of it fell through and now, on the back of a £800,000 be quest, the parish are looking to keep the building in religious use, although with later plans for external lets – in phase 2 they will subdivide the north aisle and the south nave/south aisle. The main (Blom field) nave and chancel and the Lady Chapel at the east end of the south nave, the principal areas of elaboration would stay now and into the longer term and are, no surprise there, the richest spaces. Phase 1 which is all they consulted on formally in the Spring of 2024 moves the font and creates toilets and servery in the north aisle, which is to be partitioned off. Probably the most significant loss is the tester to the pulpit which would be a casu alty of that partitioning. Given the sea-change in approach to the building, these compromises seem unobjectionable. St Nicholas was a victim of Hitler’s Baedeker raids on Bristol in 1940. The nave had been the work of James Bridges and Thomas Paty (1762-69) who re tained the 14th-century medieval crypt. The shell was gutted by the firebombs and remained roof less until 1974 when the building was reincarnated as one of the country’s few church museums. This closed in 2007 and from 2018 St Nicholas has been resurrected as a new place of worship aimed par ticularly at the City’s student population. There are now plans to bring the crypt back into use but that needs a lift. We supported the view that it must not be punched through medieval fabric and a location has emerged which would sacrifice subsidiary 18th-century vaulting. One major unresolved element on the site is a huge painting by William Hogarth − Sealing the Tomb − painted in 1755 for St Mary Redcliffe. The Victori ans did not appreciate it and after removal in 1858 it ended up as the property of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. The authorities were pleased to see it as the largest exhibit in the church museum and it remains in St Nicholas, albeit hidden behind curtaining. There are (very) long term plans to re patriate it to St Mary Redcliffe but that depends on the construction of a purpose-built new facility. In the interim we urged that the curtain be drawn back so that it might be enjoyed. BRISTOL, ST NICHOLAS

ABOVE: Blomfield at Bexhill. We are opposed to earlier plans for more extensive changes and have also resisted closure. Now everything shown here will stay except for the tester to the pulpit (and we hope the green plastic chairs). LEFT: The medieval crypt at St Nicholas survived Hitler and will be spared the indignity of a lift.

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HISTORIC BUILDINGS & PLACES