Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2022)
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| 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
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:
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| 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
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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.
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.
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| copyright © D. Sharp In memory of Kathleen Hammond and the 'lost' Lady Chapel |
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
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| copyright © D. Sharp The 'new' Lady Chapel was officially opened in 1915 |
The First World War
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| 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
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| 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
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| copyright © D. Sharp Alabaster tablet in memory of the Revd's Oldham, Dawes & Donnelly |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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
(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
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| copyright © D. Sharp Madonna & Child with Angels, given in memory of Beatrice Teresa Goff in 1896 |
Urbi et Orbi
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| copyright © D. Sharp Sacred Heart's alabaster font with tracery |
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
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| 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
2003 – ?
2010 – 2017 – Revd Peter Lewis Edwards
2010-2017 – Revd Kevin Dring
2017 –Revd Canon Colin Wolczak
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
See also St Peter's Catholic Church, Hove and and the Convent of the Sacred Heart Hove.
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| 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
page layout by D. Sharp