PLANS to remove the tiled floor and pews of All Saints’, Ryde, have been opposed by the Victorian Society, which warned last week that the legacy of Sir George Gilbert Scott was “suffering a remarkable rate of attrition” in the Church of England’s parish churches.
The reordering of the church forms part of the diocese of Portsmouth’s strategy to “revitalise Church of England churches across the Isle of Wight” (News, 5 January 2024). In 2023, it secured £1.2 million from the Church Commissioners’ Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) Board for plans including the planting of a new congregation at All Saints’ — “the cathedral of the Island”.
A new family service was established with the help of Harbour Church — a church-plant of Holy Trinity, Brompton, in Portsmouth — in addition to traditional eucharistic worship. The aim is to increase attendance from 30 to up to 300 new worshippers attending different styles of service.
A Grade II* listed building, All Saints’ was designed by Scott, a significant figure in the 19th-century Gothic revival, and built between 1867 and 1872. The Victorian Society has objected to the plans during the faculty process; it said in a press release last week that it was seeking “a more responsive and better-balanced solution, one that meets the needs of the parish whilst being significantly less harmful to the special historic and architectural interest of the building”.
The plans, currently being considered by the Diocesan Chancellor, include replacing the tiled floor to accommodate underfloor heating, and replacing most of the pews with chairs. Both the seating and floor had been specified by Scott, the Victorian Society said, and their loss would “seriously impact the building’s special architectural interest”.
On Wednesday, the Victorian Society’s director, James Hughes, said that it was difficult to name a single interior designed by Scott which remained intact. The great work that he had conducted was being lost at an “extraordinary rate”. Mr Hughes referred to the removal of pews in churches and cathedrals such as Bath Abbey, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, and Wakefield Cathedral.
Scott’s “hugely prolific” output and professional success were one of the reasons that he tended to be “disregarded”, Mr Hughes said. There was also a lack of scholarship and a tendency to overlook the later 19th-century work of restoration of medieval buildings — a skill in which Scott was unmatched.
“The Victorian Society is often characterised as being uncompromising, but our experience is that we are suggesting compromise and not being met in the middle by schemes and parishes,” he said. “It’s all or nothing.”
The Society was not opposed to achieving greater flexibility in churches, but “it’s a question of how it is done. . . We are not here to make the Church’s life harder, or prevent change, but to advise on how it can be done in ways that best preserve these buildings while also achieving broadly what the Church itself wants to achieve, which is greater use.”
Underfloor heating could be installed without the loss of the tiles, he pointed out. The Society’s position is that that more of the pews could be preserved and still accommodate the desired activities.
A spokesman for the diocese said this week that the proposals “aim to refurbish this important church building to guarantee its future”. Chairs could be easily reorganised to allow more flexible use of the building.
“We agree with the Victorian Society that All Saints’ Church is an architecturally significant building that deserves to be preserved for future use,” he said. “This is precisely why All Saints’ has drawn up these plans to refurbish their historic church. Gilbert Scott was indeed involved in the iconic design of the church building, and these proposals seek to honour and build on that original design, whilst encouraging the church’s continued use for mission in Ryde.”
The diocese has previously reported that about 1400 people worship on the Isle of Wight each week (less than one per cent of the population). A recruitment push has resulted in the filling of all the vacancies in the past two years, taking the number of stipendiary clergy on the island from 11 to 19.
The Victorian Society has to be statutorily consulted on any planning application that involves the partial or complete demolition of a listed Victorian or Edwardian building. In 2023, it argued successfully against the removal of a substantial portion of pews designed by George Gilbert Scott, Jr, at St Peter and St Paul, Knapton, in the diocese of Norwich.
