15 April 2019

Church of the Sacred Heart, Norton Road, Hove.

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2022)

copyright © D. Sharp
Church of the Sacred Heart, Norton Road, Hove in 2019

Background

It is said that the Corneys, a Catholic family living at 1 Hove Terrace in the 1830s, had a secret chapel. It is possible that the first Roman Catholic Mass to be celebrated at Hove since the Reformation took place here.

Finding a Site

However, plans for a proper Roman Catholic Church did not surface until the 1870s. Even then, finding a suitable site proved to be something of a headache.

The original site favoured was in Tisbury Road but then another site was found and purchased for £3,746. This second site was opposite Hove Town Hall, and between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. The architect John Crawley was asked to draw up plans – he was also responsible for churches in Fareham, Havant, West Grinstead, and Portsmouth, plus the Carthusian Monastery at Parkminster, Cowfold. Crawley estimated that the cost of building the church at Hove would be £1,550. This was a cold dose of reality because it seemed there was not enough money available to be able to proceed. Thus matters ground to a halt.

Meanwhile, the West Brighton Estate Company, the developers of The Avenues, began to have cold feet about the possible effect a Catholic church might have on adjacent land values, which were considered prime, residential streets. The Company solved the problem by buying back the plot of land in question, while at the same time agreeing to come up with an alternative site.

The next favoured place was Denmark Villas, and discussions about the possibilities went on during the summer of 1879. Matters were not helped by the fact that the Revd S. A. Donnelly, designated to be the first priest at the new church, did not like the site claiming it was ‘remote’. The Bishop of Southwark did not like the site either.

In October 1879 the West Brighton Estate Office offered a site in Norton Road, and this met with approval. On 23 October 1879 Hove Commissioners gave their approval to the plans. No time was lost in forging ahead with the project, and the foundation stone was laid on 3 November 1880.

The Building of the Church

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove
An Edwardian photograph of the Church of The Sacred Heart before the north extension was built.

There was still not enough money to build the whole structure at once, but a portion costing £5,000 was constructed. The church was 55-ft in length, and 40-ft wide. People involved in the work were as follows:

John Crawley and J. S. Hanson, architects
J. Tyerman from London, contractor
Mr Wheeler, clerk of the works
Mr Carter, foreman

copyright © J. Middleton
An Edwardian photograph of the Sanctuary.

The style of architecture was early English 14th century, and the structure consisted of a nave, two side aisles, a chancel, and two side chapels. Work progressed so rapidly that on 28 October 1881 Cardinal Manning was able to hold an opening service. Afterwards, the company repaired to the residence of Madame de Laski at 2 Adelaide Crescent where ‘about 100 sat down to an elegant repast’. Madame de Laski later paid for the High Altar to be installed.

copyright © J. Middleton
 Edwardian photograph of the High Altar.

The church could accommodate 250 people and the seating was open, oak-stained benches. The nave had a barrel-vaulted ceiling while the chancel and side chapels were groined in stone on marble vaulting shafts. 

copyright © D. Sharp
2019 photograph of the the Sanctuary.

Welsh slates covered the roof, and the original design showed a fleche marking the junction of nave and chancel. The brick-built walls had Swanage stone ashlar facings, while Beer stone was used for internal piers and arches as well as the cut-stone dressings of doors and windows – Beer stone came from ancient quarries near Beer Head, Seaton, South Devon.

Priest’s House

copyright © D. Sharp
The Presbytery on the left of the Church

The Presbytery, or Priest’s House, also dates back to 1881 and was connected to the church. The main floor contained a dining room, parlour and study, and in the basement there was a ‘useful sitting room’. There were three bedrooms upstairs.

Church Enlargements

By October 1887 the second stage of church development had been completed. This was a major undertaking because it resulted in the church growing to almost double its original length. On 25 October 1887 the Bishop of Southwark, Revd Dr John Butt, consecrated the church.

In 1911 a plot of land on the north side of the church was purchased for £400. This time it was Frederick Walters who drew up plans for another enlargement – namely the north aisle and the Lady Chapel.

The Lady Chapel

copyright © J. Middleton
The original Lady Chapel was gifted as a memorial to
 Mrs Kathleen Ann Mary Hammond, demolished in 1914.

The 1911 plans were not without controversy, especially since there was already a much-loved Lady Chapel in existence.

copyright © D. Sharp
In memory of Kathleen Hammond
and the 'lost' Lady Chapel
It has been described as exquisite in every detail with a wealth of mural decorations and gold ornamentation and was perhaps the masterpiece of Nathaniel John Herbert Westlake.

The Lady Chapel was gifted as a memorial by the husband and daughters of Mrs Kathleen Ann Mary Hammond who died on 18 January 1902. By 1914 the family had moved from Hove but in 1914 they were distraught to learn there were plans afoot to destroy the chapel owing to the creation of a north aisle.

They wrote at once to Canon Connelly to ask that the Lady Chapel might be preserved, and no doubt were relieved to receive a reply reassuring them on this point.

However, for some unaccountable reason, the ‘exquisite’ Lady Chapel was removed. Perhaps in order to assuage guilty consciences, a brass tablet was installed asking for prayers for the repose of the soul of Mrs Hammond.

The new Lady Chapel was formally opened on 24 February 1915

copyright © D. Sharp
The 'new' Lady Chapel was officially opened in 1915

The First World War 
copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove
1 February 1915 report from the Brighton Herald  
See Belgian Refugees in Portslade & Hove 1914-18 

Stained Glass and Wall Paintings
copyright © D. Sharp
St Elizabeth, John the Baptist - 
BVM, The Christ Child & St Joseph.
Window in memory of Thomas Woodcock 1919,
Designed by Lavers & Westlake.

Nathaniel John Herbert Westlake was also responsible for the ornamentation of the church including wall paintings and stained glass. The large paintings on the walls were not strictly speaking ‘murals’ because they were painted on canvas and then mounted on the walls – a process known as marouflage. There was also marouflage for the vaulting of the sanctuary, depicting Our Lord and the Virgin Mary, surrounded by the seven great archangels. In addition, Westlake’s scheme of decoration included embellishments painted directly onto the wall surface.

Westlake was involved too in the marouflage decoration of Our Lady, Star of the Sea & St Denis, Portslade. Unfortunately, for both Hove and Portslade, such rich wall decoration went out of favour, and neither church was interested in preserving that particular heritage, to the great regret of many people.

Westlake’s last work for the Sacred Heart was to design the five little windows above the west door featuring the five sacred wounds. Strangely enough, the windows were put in place on the very same day that his body was brought into the church – he died at the age of 89 on 9 May 1921.

His daughter, Margaret Westlake, continued his artistic assistance, and designed a window for the south aisle depicting Our Lord in the house of Martha and Mary.

Benefactors

copyright © D. Sharp
Alabaster tablet in memory of
the Revd's Oldham, Dawes & Donnelly
It is interesting to note that two important benefactors to the church of the Sacred Heart were in fact former Anglican clergymen. These two converts to the Catholic faith were not isolated examples either and followed a trend set by the famous Revd John Henry Newman who was received into the Catholic Church in 1845. Newman went on to become a cardinal and after Easter 2019 he will be declared a saint in a special ceremony in St Peter’s Square, Rome.

Revd George Alfred Oldham was ordained into the Church of England, and in 1846 became a curate at St Andrew’s Old Church, Hove. He converted to Catholicism in 1860 and was sent to Brighton. He died on 18 October 1875. In his will he stipulated that £5,000 or £6,000 should be spent on building a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart as near as possible to his old stamping ground of St Andrew’s.

Revd Charles Willock Dawes who had also once been an Anglican clergyman, expended £5,000 on finishing the building of the church. He died on 25 December 1899.

Their names are recorded on an alabaster tablet set in the cloisters of the church.

copyright © D. Sharp
The cloisters and entrance to the church

However, it must also be remembered that there were many female benefactors of the church.

copyright © D. Sharp
In memory of Herminie Fumeau, near the church's entrance 

Requiem Mass for some Notable People

24 November 1887 – Prince John of Bourbon – The Prince lived at 25 Seafield Road, Hove, and died at the age of 69. The requiem mass was a splendid occasion with three 10f-t high yellow candles standing on either side of the catafalque and the church being heavily draped in black. A newspaper report recorded the scene as follows:

The altar was apparently the only part of the chancel and sanctuary, with the exception of the higher walls, which was not draped in black cloth; the whole of the reredos, the lower sanctuary walls, and even the chancel stalls were completely enveloped in this sombre drapery, and as the interior of the beautiful little church is of white stone, the windows being filled with stained-glass of peculiarly rich tints, the effect produced … was strangely, grandly picturesque.

The widow did not attend but his two sons were present. The eldest was the Infant Don Alfonso, and his wife Infanta Maria de las N’uven was there too. Prince John’s brother, Don Carlos, was amongst the mourners – he was also Charles VI, known as the Count de Montemolin, in support of whose claims to the throne the Spanish risings of 1848, 1855, and 1860 were organised. Another mourner was the Earl of Ashburnham who acted as Don Carlos’ unofficial representative in England for many years.

The choir was composed entirely of clergy for the occasion, and there were at least seven priests by the altar.

It is said that Prince John’s body, in its plain coffin, remained in a pavilion set up in the presbytery garden until it was removed to the family vault in Trieste.

May 1891 – Barry Sullivan – Sullivan (1824-1891) was a very famous Victorian actor of Irish extraction who also toured the world. He purchased 46 Albany Villas, Hove, in 1869 and lived there with his wife and children. The 1891 census recorded that there were still four unmarried children living at home. It was at this house that he died on the 9 May 1891. His coffin was conveyed from Albany Villas to the Sacred Heart in a hearse drawn by four horses. Five priests presided at the funeral, and the choir from Brompton Oratory provided the singing.

His body was taken back to Ireland, and he was buried at the Prospect Cemetery, Glasnevin, Dublin.

December 1895 – George Augustus Sala – Sala (1828-1895) was a famous writer and journalist, and Charles Dickens thought highly of him – Sala also contributed to Dickens’ All the Year Round and Household Words from 1851 to 1856. Sala had a long association with the Daily Telegraph and later acted as a special correspondent, reporting on the American Civil War, and the coronation of Tsar Alexander III at St Petersberg. Indeed his obituary noted that he was literally the ‘spirit of the Daily Telegraph in its encyclopaedic information and its quaintly inflated diction’. Sala also wrote a gossip column for the Sunday Times entitled ‘Echoes of the Town’, which he delivered personally every week. But Sala was well aware of the transitory nature of his journalism, writing as follows:

I have given the best of my brain to anonymous ephemeral work, which, no matter how good, leaves nothing behind it to remember me by, I have written some 7,000 leading articles, many of them laboriously constructed, carefully thought out and (thanks to my commonplace books filled with the compilation of many years) also crammed with information … yet when I am dead the world will only remember me as the unknown writer of some smart articles and a very weak romance.

Sala’s appearance was a gift to the cartoonist. He habitually wore a chocolate-coloured frock coat, Blucher boots and dazzling waistcoats but nobody could be unaware of his famous nose, which Sala referred to as his ‘incarnadined proboscis’. His red nose was the result of a fracas in a Haymarket pub when a man wearing a diamond ring delivered a severe blow.

In 1895 Sala was living at 59 Norton Road in the house of surgeon William G. Thistle. Mr Thistle had been treating Sala since June of that year but there was nothing much to be done since Sala was suffering from cancer of the liver, kidney disease, and a shattered nervous system. He was nursed by a sister from the Bon Secour Convent, Westbourne Grove, London, with Mrs Bessie Sala in close attendance.

Revd S. R. Donnelly conducted the requiem mass, having received Sala into the Catholic church only three months previously. Reminiscent of Prince John’s funeral, there were the same tall yellow candles and black-draped sanctuary. On top of the coffin rested floral tributes from Sir Edward and Lady Lawson, and Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Sala’s coffin was carried in an open funeral car pulled by four horses. Sala was buried in the Catholic part of Hove Cemetery, but since the ground had not yet been consecrated, Father Donnelly blessed the grave and censed it.

(The English artist William Powell Frith (1819-1909) painted a most interesting work entitled The Private View at the Royal Academy 1881. It has been described as a veritable Who’s Who of the great and the good in Victorian Britain. On the right side of the painting there is the unmistakable figure of George Augustus Sala – his red nose shining like a beacon.) Daily Mail 12 April 2019.

September 1902 - Jeanne, Lady Macartney, nee du Sautoy

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove
A Brighton Herald account of a Solemn Requiem 
held for Lady Macartney, 20 September 1902

May 1903 – Luigi Arditi – Arditi was born on 16 July 1822 in Crescentino, Piedmont, and he died on 1 May 1903 at 14 Gwydyr Mansions, Hove. He became a well known musician and a popular conductor, and it was at his Covent Garden concerts that Wagnerian selections were first popularised in England. Under his direction such famous singers as Adelina Patti and Melba gave performances. He wrote 89 compositions, the most famous being Il Bacio, a waltz-song first performed at Brighton in 1860. Another celebrated song was Se Saran Rose.

Arditi lived at Hove for a year and a half before his death. He took a great interest in the Brighton School of Music, to which he donated his musical library, and also a gold medal to be awarded to operatic singers of Italian music.

After the requiem mass at the Sacred Heart, Arditi’s coffin was taken to Hove Cemetery where it was buried in the Catholic part situated in the north of the ground, south of Old Shoreham Road. In fact his grave is to be found quite near to the main entrance and the boundary wall. The grave is marked by a cross, mounted on a pedestal, and surrounded by an iron railing. Arditi’s widow Virginia died on 27 June 1909.
copyright © D. Sharp
The Good Samaritan - Widow's mite.
Window in memory of William Hammond 1909.
Designed by Paul Woodroffe.

Famous Parishioners

Dr Augustus Edmonds Tozer – He was received into the Catholic church in 1884, and lived with his family at 45 Norton Road. Tozer did a great deal to raise the standard of music in the church. Indeed, it is interesting to note that his composition Mass of the Blessed Sacrament was in use at the Sacred Heart for many years before it was published.

Eric Gill (1882-1940) – He was born in Brighton as the second child in a family of eleven children, and went to school at Arnold House, Hove. Gill’s father was the minister of the Countess of Huntingdon’s church in North Street, Brighton. In 1907 Gill moved to Ditchling where three years later he helped to found a guild of Catholic craftsmen. On 26 February 1913 Gill and his wife were received into the Catholic church at the Sacred Heart. Gill created the beautiful Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral.

Colonel Robert Charles Goff (1837-1922) – He served in the Army for 23 years – his regiments being the 50th Queen’s Own, the 15th Foot, and the Coldstream Guards, becoming colonel of the latter. He served throughout the Crimean War.

Goff retired in 1878 in order to devote himself to art in which he enjoyed an astonishing success. Indeed, the obituary in The Times stated, ‘no artist without professional training has turned out so much excellent work’. He specialised in landscape paintings and etchings. Goff travelled extensively and lived in Italy and Switzerland, but by around 1900 he was mostly based at Hove. By 1902 he was living at 15 Adelaide Crescent, whilst also keeping a residence in South Kensington. By 1917 Goff was installed in a house on the west side of Holland Road with an extension for a studio, which was later known as the Wick Studio. In December 1913 there was an exhibition of Goff’s watercolours and etchings at Hove Library, and nearly 200 people visited it. Goff had tragedy in his life too when his eleven-year old son died in 1891, and in his memory the grieving parents presented a plaque depicting Our Lady to the Sacred Heart. His wife Beatrice Teresa, a member of Maltese nobility, also died, and in 1899 he married for the second time.

copyright © D. Sharp
Madonna & Child with Angels, given in memory of Beatrice Teresa Goff in 1896

Urbi et Orbi

copyright © D. Sharp
Sacred Heart's alabaster font with tracery
On 1 April 1923 an unusual event took place. It was in the early days of BBC broadcasting, and it was decided to broadcast the Pope’s Easter message Urbi et Orbi and relay it to London. From thence it was relayed to several towns by land lines. One of the places on the link-up was the church of the Sacred Heart. The astonished congregation were thus able to hear Pope Pius XI’s message, as well as listen to the bells of St Peter’s ringing out live – thanks to Reginald Abbot busy up in the loft with his earphones.

A Celebration

In October 1981 there was a double celebration at the Sacred Heart when the church celebrated its 100th anniversary, and Canon Terence Stonehill was inducted as the new priest. He was appointed after the sudden death of the previous priest, Canon John O’Connor, while on holiday in Ireland – he had spent twelve months preparing for this important festival that sadly, he never lived to see. The celebration was attended by 400 parishioners, and 40 priests – most of the priests having once served as curates at the Sacred Heart.

In 1993 Monsignor Stonehill left Hove to go to a church in Henfield.

Lead Thieves

In 2011 it is saddening to report that there were 40 incidents at Sussex churches where lead was stolen from roofs. An example of this crime happened at the Sacred Heart when in in 2012 Father Kevin Dring found his study flooded with rain-water because of gaps in the roof where lead had been stripped off. However, the church being in a town environment rather than a rural setting, probably meant that the thieves were disturbed because when Father Dring ventured outside, he found a pile of abandoned lead. It is ironic that the value of the lead was far less than the final bill would be for mending the roof. (Argus 6/11/12)

Parish Priests
copyright © D. Sharp
In memory of the 
Right Rev. Mgr. James Canon Connelly

1879-1900 – Revd Silvester Aloysius Donnelly
1900-1916 – Canon James Connelly
1916  – Revd Herbert
1916-1934 – Canon Thomas Ottley
1934  –  Revd Donagh P. O’Brien
1934-1937 – Revd Augustine O’Leary
1937-1956 – Canon Joseph R. Crea
1956 Revd Anthony J. Mulhern
1956-1963 – Canon Clement J. Constable
1963 –  Revd Thomas Mulvey
1964-1972 – Canon Herbert Cyril Fincham
1972-1981 – Canon John Francis O’Connor
1981-1993 – Canon Terence T. Stonehill
1993-1998 – Revd Anthony M. Churchill
1998-2002 – Revd Mario Sanderson
2002 – Revd Peter J. Edwards
2003  – ?
2010 – 2017 – Revd Peter Lewis Edwards
2010-2017 – Revd Kevin Dring
2017  –Revd Canon Colin Wolczak

Sources

Middleton, J. Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Gill, E. Autobiography (1940)
Martin, M. Church of the Sacred Heart, Hove (2002)
Royal Pavilion & Museum, Brighton & Hove  
Valdes, I. Sacred Heart Church 1881-1981

copyright © J. Middleton

See also St Peter's Catholic Church, Hove and and the Convent of the Sacred Heart Hove.

Copyright © J.Middleton 2019
page layout by D. Sharp