Hove in the Past: St Peter's Church, Aldrington, Hove.

Judy Middleton & D. Sharp 2003 (revised 2019)

The building of this Roman Catholic church owes its existence to the people of the Church of the Sacred Heart, Norton Road, Hove, and it was considered as part of that parish until 1920.

Monsignor Connelly was the parish priest of the Sacred Heart from 1900 to 1916, and he was able to purchase the site in Portland Road with money from the estate of his predecessor Father Donelley. The site was situated between Shelley Road and Tamworth Road, and was purchased from the Duke of Portland who owned large tracts of land in Aldrington. There is a lovely story about a certain member of the congregation, a cousin of the Duke in fact, who was horrified at the steep original asking price of £1,100 and managed to prevail upon the Duke to reduce it to a more affordable £850 (£850 is equivalent to £128,495 in 2019)

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove
Church of The Sacred Heart, Hove, was the 'mother church' of St Peter's until 1920.

However, there was still a good deal of fund-raising to be gone through before the church could be built and properly furnished. The clergy did not stint in extending a helping hand, and there was the legendary 3-day bazaar Father Ward held at Hove Town Hall that raised an incredible sum of money – between £700 and £800.

Then there was the wealthy spinster, Miss Dora Creagh, who lived at 16 Second Avenue, Hove. She died on 23 June 1911, leaving £2,000 in the care of trustees to go towards the building of the church.

The Catholic Magazine reported that on Rosary Sunday 5 October 1902, a first beginning was made of the new Aldrington Parish by the celebration of Mass in the infants room of the Coleridge Street School. The name of St Peter was chosen because it was already in use, according to the 1904 Directory, for the Roman Catholic School in Coleridge Street, Hove. But it seems this might have been an unofficial name.

At Portland Road the first building to be erected in 1902 was the church hall, and church services were held there from 1904 until the new church was ready.

Architect ?

Hove Council approved Bertram Harold Dixon’s plans for the new church on 5 September 1912, but he was not the architect of the present church.
B.H. Dixon was a Brighton architect, who in 1912-13 was already in the process of building the Blessed Sacrament Convent Chapel in Kemp Town in the Early English style (his first church building).

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove
A photograph of St Peter's in the year the Church was opened in 1915, interesting to note there was once a hedge and fence around the church and presbytery.

It is possible that on reconsideration St Peter’s Church Building Committee rejected Dixon’s plans for the building style he used. The Parish of Aldrington was already surrounded by Anglican Churches in the Early English style, at St Leonard’s Aldrington, St Peter’s West Blatchington, St Andrew’s Hove and St Andrew’s Portslade. It would seem the Church authorities really wanted a church building that would make a highly visible statement and chose a Romanesque Revival style, a building design unique, amongst all the church buildings of the City of Brighton and Hove.

On the 21 August 1913 Hove Council approved plans for St Peter’s Church submitted by Claude Kelly who specialised in Romanesque and Gothic Revival styles. There was a condition attached that the open space on the north side should be retained as such.

copyright © J.Middleton
When the St Peter's Church was built in 1915 it was in a purely residential road, today it is a mix of both commercial and residential properties

Claude Kelly was the son of John Kelly (1840-1904) who designed over 50 churches. Claude was in partnership with his father and took over the practice from 1904 when John died. Some architectural historians believe that John Kelly was involved in the design of St Peter’s before his death. Two of John Kelly’s churches, St Patrick’s, Soho, and Our Lady of Grace at Chiswick, have very similar campaniles (church towers) to that of St Peter’s Aldrington.

The Brighton Herald reported on the 21 August 1915 that Mr Claude Kelly of Oxford was the architect and the builders were a local firm – Messrs Packham, Palmer and Preston.

In Nairn and Pevsner’s 1965 The Buildings of England (Sussex) they attribute the design of St Peter’s to John A. Marshall, chief assistant to John Francis Bentley the architect of Westminster Cathedral. After Bentley’s death in 1902, Marshall took on the roll of the Cathedral’s architect and carried on Bentley’s work. Marshall was responsible for the design of many of the Cathedral’s internal ‘fittings and structures’ e.g. side chapels, altars, marble screens, lighting and oversaw the selection of the designs for the Stations of the Cross.

copyright © J.Middleton
St Peter's 29m (96 ft) high campanile with its copper roof
is a focal point for much of the length of Portland Road.

English Heritage Review of Diocesan Churches 2005 states, 'St Peter’s Aldrington is a startling building in its re-creation of an Early Christian basilica; the campanile forms a notable marker in the townscape. Properly listed Grade II' the review goes on to say 'the architect is probably John Kelly (not Claude)' and that the ‘St Peter’s 1998 Quinquennial report mentions John A. Marshall, chief assistant to J F Bentley at Westminster Cathedral, as having involvement in St Peter’s design.’

There seems to be some confusion as to who was the actual architect of St Peter’s.

Nairn and Pevsner, two of the best known English architectural historians and writers of the 20^th century, put the church’s design down to John A. Marshall the architect at Westminster Cathedral whereas English Heritage suggest the church’s design is the work of John Kelly. Putting together these conflicting statements in the above, could it be possible that Claude Kelly submitted his late father’s designs and the whole project was overseen by John A. Marshall of Westminster Cathedral ?

There is an interesting local connection with the planning for a Cathedral at Westminster. The Cathedral’s architect, John F. Bentley, was originally the student and later assistant to the prolific church and country house architect Henry Clutton (a Catholic convert). Clutton was an expert in the French-Gothic style, so much so he won the competition to design the new Lille Cathedral, but when the authorities discovered he was not French the contract was cancelled. Two of his most notable projects in Sussex were the rebuilding of Battle Abbey and design of St Mary of the Angels in Worthing.

Henry was the grandson of the Revd Ralph Clutton, the Anglican Vicar of Portslade, and also coincidently the brother-in-law of the Archbishop of Westminster Henry Manning.

Clutton submitted the first designs for a Westminster Cathedral in 1867 but due to lack of building funds and support from his brother-in-law Archbishop Manning for a French-Gothic style Cathedral, his designs were abandoned. J.F. Bentley rejected an opportunity to go into partnership with Henry Clutton and submitted his own designs for the Cathedral in the Neo-Byzantine style, which were duly accepted by the later Archbishop of Westminster, Herbert Vaughan

Monsignor Canon Arthur Cocks M.A. - St Peter's First Priest in 1915

Arthur Reginald Carew Cocks was born in 1862 in London and educated at Brighton, Eton and Exeter College, Oxford where he received a M.A.

Arthur Cocks was born into an illustrious family which included Lords, Barons, Earls and City Bankers. He was the nephew of the Marchioness of Salisbury (1827-1899) the wife of the Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil. Arthur was a first cousin to - Lord Rupert Gascoyne-Cecil the Bishop of Exeter, Beatrix the Countess of Selborne the suffragists and Lord Robert Cecil who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937 for his work with the League of Nations.

In 1885 he was ordained into the Church of England and served his curacy at St Augustine’s Stepney, followed by a chaplaincy at both an orphanage and a hospice until 1894.

From 1895-1910 Fr Arthur Cocks was the Vicar of Brighton’s largest church, St Bartholomew’s in Ann Street, one of the poorest and deprived area's of Victorian Brighton.

Fr Cocks was a very popular Anglo-Catholic parish priest and regularly celebrated Solemn High Mass on a Sunday before a congregation of over a 1000. Fr Cocks served as a member and later as chairman of the Brighton Board of Guardians and committed to improving the welfare of inmates of the Brighton Workhouse in Elm Grove (now Brighton General Hospital).

During Fr Cocks stewardship of St Bartholomew’s, many of the most beautiful and striking architectural features were installed e.g. the 45 foot high baldacchino (altar canopy), new altar, tabernacle, side chapels, baptistery, pulpit, organ gallery to seat 150 choiristers and as in the case of St Peter’s Aldrington a large varieties of marbles from many countries were used.

Due to doctrinal differences with the Bishop of Chichester he left the Church of England and started on the path of conversion to Roman Catholicism. When he announced his resignation at St Bartholomew’s, the Brighton Herald reported that 1200 of his congregation signed a petition asking Fr Cocks to stay.

Fr Cocks was not the first high profile and popular priest to leave St Bartholomew's, 7 years before Fr Cocks had arrived in Brighton, Fr Philip Fletcher resigned as curate and joined the Catholic Church. Fr Fletcher was the joint founder and Master of The Guild of of Our Lady of Ransom and he was one of the prime movers for the revival of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in 1897. The newly ordained Fr Fletcher (like Fr Cocks of St Peter’s in later years) occasionally celebrated Mass and preached at St Joseph’s Elm Grove a half a mile from their former Anglican Church of St Bartholomew’s.

After leaving Brighton in August 1910, Arthur Cocks was received into the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Southwark Peter Amigo, on 8 October 1910 at the Oratory of Redemptorist Fathers at Clapham from whence he was sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy.

On 26 October 1912 Arthur Cocks was ordained by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val the Vatican Secretary of State along with five other former Church of England priests, remarkably four of these priests were from Brighton churches. After the ordination service the six new priests were invited to a private audience with Pope Pius X.

While studying in Rome, Fr Arthur Cocks became firm friends with a young priest, a certain Fr Eugenio Pacelli.

Fr Eugenio asked Fr Arthur to act as an English language tutor to him, so he could improve his written and conversational skills. Fr Arthur’s friendship with Fr Eugenio did not end when he left Rome for England, they both corresponded with each other for many years. It must have been one of the most momentous events of Monsignor Cocks’ life, when years later in 1939 his old friend Fr Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope Pius XII.

Fr Cocks was still living in Rome when Pope Pius X died and his successor Pope Benedict XV was elected

Before leaving Rome in 1915, Fr Cocks was appointed Supernumerary Privy Chamberlain to His Holiness the Pope, remarkably all this happening within three years of his ordination.

The most prized possession of Monsignor Arthur Cocks was a hand written letter he received from His Holiness Pope Benedict XV on his appointment as the first priest of St Peter’s Aldrington, as follows:-

“May the Lord bless our dearly beloved son, Monsignor Arthur Cocks, and his parishioners and all the benefactors of his parish, and make the new Church of St Peter’s in Aldrington to become a centre of piety and good works in the Diocese of Southwark. Given at the Vatican, 13 May 1915, BENEDICT, P.P. XV”

Monsignor Arthur Cocks left St Peter’s in 1917 to take up the position as Rector of Eastbourne. He was sent to Eastbourne to oversee the completion of the building of the Church of Our Lady of Ransom, which the late Fr Paul Lynch had started in 1894.

A 1918 church notice published in the
Brighton Herald, showing a Lent Course
led by Mgr Cocks of Eastbourne

Although Monsignor Cocks was based in Eastbourne he often preached at St Joseph’s in Elm Grove. In this area of Brighton he would have been well known by a large population of non-catholics from his former days as a Church of England vicar at St Bartholomew’s, which is less than half a mile from St Joseph’s.

The building work at Our Lady of Ransom, Eastbourne was completed in 1929 apart from the Sacred Heart Chapel which was not opened until 1932.

In 1929 he was appointed a Canon of Southwark Chapter.

In 1930 Monsignor Canon Cocks retired as Rector of Eastbourne due to ill health and moved to Worthing.

When Monsignor Canon Arthur Cocks died in 1954 at Worthing, the headlines on the National Catholic Welfare Conference Newsfeeds (U.S.A) read ‘Priest Who Taught Pope English Dies at 92, Was Convert From Anglicanism’ and a similar headline in The Advocate (Australia) read 'Convert-Priest Who Taught Pope English'

New Church Beginnings

At the beginning of Monsignor Canon Cocks ministry, he was handed £4,500 in building funds. He managed to double the amount of money available in a short period (£4,500 is the equivalent to £458,763 in 2019).

St Peter's is an unusual structure and the campanile is especially notable, being a landmark along Portland Road. It is a little piece of Italy. There is a story that when the campanile was first envisaged, the builder was of the opinion that such a structure could not be built because of the nature of the ground. Whatever the truth of the matter, the campanile was built and remains in good heart.

The nave in 1915 and 2019,
The 1915 view of the nave looks quite modern with the use of chairs, thus making the nave more usable for other church related activities.

On 18 August 1915 an opening ceremony of St Peter’s was performed by the Bishop of Southwark Peter Amigo, with the assistance of seven Canons and eleven priests. In the congregation was Sir Stuart Coats M.P. the Privy Chamberlain to Pope Benedict XV.

copyright © D. Sharp
The sanctuary is particularly beautiful with its Italian green marble columns
and Corinthian capitals in gold, beneath the red carpet is a panelled marble
floor and steps in Irish black marble from Connemara, originally there were
bronze gates between two marble altar rails at the foot of the steps.

In the original 1915 St Peter’s Church, there were four side chapels, the Lady Chapel, the Chapel of St Patrick, the Chapel of the Passion and the Chapel of English Martyrs.

The baptistery contains a single column of Italian

marble, the walls are Irish marble and the

floor is Swedish marble.

In 1991 the font was moved to the left side of
the sanctuary.

Although St Peter’s Church was open for services it could not be officially consecrated until all the debts were paid off – it was a similar situation for new churches built for Church of England congregations.

In 1920 St Peter’s was made a separate Parish and no longer an extension of the Parish of the Sacred Heart, Norton Road, Hove.

In 1927 preparations were made for the consecration of St Peter’s Church. These included the twelve consecration crosses being set in place, and the doors being re-polished – the Tabernacle was fire-gilt.

On 28 June 1927 the church was consecrated in the presence of two bishops, 40 priests and the congregation.

Father Bede Jarrett was the first priest to preach from the new oak pulpit, which was in place by 1929. At the same time 36 new oak benches were installed.

In 1930 John Courage, a member of the congregation, was so inspired by the choir’s loyalty to singing plain song that he donated a fine Willis organ.

The statue of St Peter was installed over the front door during the time the Revd Peter Paul King was at the church from 1938 to 1943.

The Catholic Herald reported in March 1953, ‘that Monsignor. Ernest Moodie, formerly of St Peter’s Hove, was granted the title of ‘Excellency’ by the Holy Father in recognition of his outstanding zeal and charity. He retired to Rome before the Second World War and was made a Canon of the Lateran, he is also a Protonotary Apostolic.’
In 1961 Mgr Moodie was appointed the Auditor General of Apostolic Camera (caring for the possessions of the Papal household) Mgr Ernest Moodie is commemorated by a plaque in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the St John Lateran Basilica in Rome.

copyright © D. Sharp
This chapel to the right of the sanctuary was originally
the Lady Chapel, in 1991 the Lady Chapel was re-sited
next to the nave, and this chapel was re-named -
The Blessed Sacrament Chapel

Revd Michael Reynell came to St Peter’s in 1982. A fortnight after his arrival he caused a major upset by dispensing with the traditional Tredentine Mass sung in Latin, and substituting a version in English. St Peter’s was the only church locally that kept up the old Latin Mass and had built up an appreciative congregation of 160 people but as a result of the dispute, numbers dropped. However, it must be remembered that it was Vatican policy to introduce the celebration of the Mass in the language relevant to the people of the congregation.

In 1988 St Peter’s became a Grade II listed building.

In 1991 the sanctuary was reordered so that Mass could be said with the priest facing the congregation. The high altar was removed and the tabernacle re-sited in the original Lady Chapel, now the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The baptismal font was moved from the baptistery in the north west corner of the church to a position near the sanctuary. The pulpit in the nave of the church was removed altogether.

In 2004 the original porch at the entrance to the church was modified with a glass screen between the nave and the lobby. A new doorway was built to connect the church and church hall together via the lobby

In 2015 to mark the centenary of St Peter’s the sanctuary and side chapels were refurbished.

The Lady Chapel contains a beautiful pear-wood statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Child, the statue was carved by a Belgian refugee in London in 1915 and presented to St Peter’s by two members of the congregation.

See the Belgian Refugees in Portslade & Hove 1914-18 page.

A New Window

The centenary of St Peter’s Church – now a Grade II listed building – was also marked by the commissioning of a new stained-glass window. In fact it was to be a rose window, and replaced plain glass. The congregation set about fund-raising activities to raise enough money for the project, and it must have been a very satisfying occasion for them when on 1 June 2019 the new window was officially unveiled. Father O’Brien, who retired in 2015, returned to officiate at the special service, and Councillor Alan Robins, Deputy Mayor of Brighton & Hove, was also present – needless to say the church was packed.

It is pleasant to record that the congregation chose the subject – namely the miraculous catch of fish by the disciples Peter and Andrew. Debbie Burgess was the artist who designed the window and set the scene off the Sussex coast with the Seven Sisters in the background and herring gulls in the air. The outer edge of the rose window is crowded with various fish such as plaice, bream, cod and herring.

Parish priest, Father Alexander Lucie-Smith, said ‘Stained-glass is a form of image that is particularly powerful. There is something about the way the light shines through the glass that speaks to the human soul.’ (West Hove Directory June 2019)

It is also the first new stained-glass window in Hove or Portslade for many a long year.

copyright © D. Sharp
St Peter’s other stained glass windows:- the first two Edwardian windows - Madonna & Child and the Holy Family are located in the south wall of the former Lady Chapel now The Blessed Sacrament Chapel,
the modern third and fourth windows - St Joseph and Madonna & Child are located in the west wall either side of the Church’s entrance.

Parish Priests

1915 - Monsignor Canon Arthur Cocks

1920 - Monsignor Ernest Moodie

1938 - Canon Richard O’Regan

1943 - Canon Peter Paul King

1952 - Revd Timothy O’Donoghue

1954 - Revd Denis Tuohy

1968 - Revd Philip Dickerson

1982 - Canon Michael Reynell

2000 - Revd Jerry O’Brien

2018 - Revd Alexander Lucie-Smith

Curates

1938 - Revd Thomas Murphy
1939 - Revd Laurence Roskilly
1940 - Revd Edward Dilger
1941 - Revd James MacDonald
1943 - Revd Andrew Desmond
1945 - Revd John Bluett
1945 - Revd Francis McGuinn
1951 - Revd Henry Reynolds
1955 - Revd John Hagreen
1956 - Revd Denis Paul
1958 - Revd Denis Barry
1960 - Revd Kevin St Aubyn
1960 - Revd Brian Storey
1962 - Revd Anthony Burnham
1968 - Revd Timothy Kelly
1969 - Revd Albert van der Most
1969 - Revd Michael Winter
1971 - Revd Christopher Benyon
1978 - Revd Mark Elvins
1980 - Revd John O’Sullivan
1983 - Revd Jerry O’Brien (in residence – Chaplain at Cardinal Newman School)
1984 - Revd Paul Wilkins

Sources

Brighton Herald
Brighton & Hove City Libraries

Brighton, Hove & South Sussex Graphic

Street Directory

Clarence & Richmond Examiner (NSW Australia)

De L’Hopital, Winefride, Westminster Cathedral and its Architect (1919)

English Heritage

Hove Council Minute Books

Martin, Margaret, Church of the Sacred Heart, Hove (2002)

Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Nairn, Ian and Pevsner, Nikolaus, Sussex (The Buildings of England) (1965)

National Catholic Welfare Conference Newsfeeds (U.S.A.)

Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove

St Peter’s Catholic Church, Aldrington, Hove. (Parish website)

The Advocate (Melbourne Australia)
The Catholic Advocate
The Catholic Herald

The Catholic Magazine
The Catholic News Archive
The London Standard

Valdes, Ivy Sacred Heart Church 1881-1981

See also the history of the former Church of Our Lady - Star of the Sea & St Denis Portslade, St Marye's Convent Portslade, Convent of the Sacred Heart Hove and the Church of the Sacred Heart in Norton Road, Hove.

09 March 2019

St Peter's Church, Aldrington, Hove.