Building Name

Church of St Paul Scotforth Lancaster

Date
1874 - 1876
District/Town
Scotforth, Lancaster
County/Country
Lancashire, England
Architect
Work
New build

SCOTFORTH —The new church of St. Paul, Scotforth, near Lancaster, was consecrated on Friday by the Bishop of Manchester. The style is late 12th century Gothic, and the plan shows a nave, with north and south aisles, chancel, central saddle-backed tower, and eastern apse. The church is chiefly constructed of stone from a neighbouring quarry, but the tower, south porch, and all the dressings and moulded work are of terra cotta. The pulpit, reading-desk, and open bench seats are of yellow pine. 300 sittings are provided. The total cost of the building is £3,500. Mr. Edmund Sharpe was the architect: Mr. Boynes the mason; Messrs. Cliff, of Wortley, near Leeds, supplied the terra cotta, Mr. Greenhall the heating apparatus. [Building News 25 February 1876 page 209]

Almost thirty years were to elapse before Sharpe had the next opportunity to use terra cotta. He had retired from practice as an architect in 1851 to devote his time to writing and his many business interests. However, in 1874 he became one of the chief subscribers to the church of St. Paul which was to be built within a few hundred yards of his home at Scotforth, Lancaster, and he therefore considered himself A... “justified under these circumstances not only in preparing the designs of this church, as an amateur, but also in attempting to realize the idea I had conceived thirty years ago, by the help of which we might hope, with our limited means, to produce a structure of greater comeliness and ecclesiastical character than we could expect to accomplish were we to use exclusively the gritstone of the neighbourhood.” The church cost £2,800 to build. Sharpe estimated that it would have cost about  £4,000 if it had been constructed entirely in local stone.  St. Paul’s  was a small church with seating for 300. It followed the usual plan with a nave (extended by 24 feet in 1891) aisles, clerestory, south porch, chancel and semi-circular apse. The most unusual feature is the placing of the tower over the chancel a position more French than English. Except for the use of terra-cotta,  which might on that account prove instructive to others, Sharpe claimed little for A.. a design which, au reste, is sufficiently modest@. The style was that of the latter part of the Transitional period, about 1170, and the church is built in flat-faced rubble walling with terra cotta dressings of a matching colour. Sharpe otherwise restricts the use of terra-cotta to parts of the interior and exterior, including the doorway of the south porch and the whole of the upper part of the tower with its saddleback roof. In this instance, the terra cotta did not come from Ladyshore but was manufactured by Messrs Cliff & Son, of Wortley, near Leeds.

Sharpe had previously decided that, should he ever have occasion to use terra-cotta again, he would so use it as to ensure the complete burning of the whole work, with only a moderate amount of firing. Therefore, only small pieces would be used throughout the building, dimensions limited to the following: A... for the ordinary walling blocks, 9 inches by 42 inches, giving a cubical content of 162 inches; and for the largest pieces of ornamental work a maximum of 400 cubic inches; and thus, instead of obliging the terra-cotta to suit the design, so to prepare the design as to suit the terra-cotta.@ This decision would, he felt, have an important corollary: Now it is obvious that this limitation in the size of the blocks to be used is inconsistent with Gothic work of the kind that was prevalent in this country in the 13th and subsequent centuries. Indeed, the massive effects that we see realized in Norman work were produced by stones much smaller in size than those which were used in certain situations in Gothic work. But still better adapted to the condition which I have just ventured to lay down is the work of that period to which I have endeavoured in my recent publications to call special attention, and which occupied the latter half of the 12th century. For in this Transitional work, especially in that lighter description of it which was executed towards the close of the Period, we find in its mechanical ornamentation, and in the repetition of parts in its moulded and carved work, exactly those conditions which adapt themselves to the . . . use of terra-cotta.

Sharpe himself prepared all the drawings and supervised the modelling for St Paul's, thus ensuring that no piece exceeded the maximum size determined by him. As a result all the terra-cotta work is solid and solidly built into the walls and there is no hollow work of any kind. The external walling of the tower is built of 9 inch by 4 inch by 42 inch blocks backed by, and securely bonded to, ordinary brickwork set on edge.  Sharpe was particularly well pleased with the result. In 1876, shortly after the completion of the church, he wrote of the terra-cotta: "The material, as regards colour, is unexceptionable; of a warm colour, of the very best stone colour and this is not only on the surface, but throughout. Burning does not darken or change the colour of the block internally' as is the case with some fireclay. It requires no special preparation other than that to which all other brick clay is subjected. It will carry a great amount heat in burning, and possess, when burnt, all those proofs of durability which well burnt fireclay ought to exhibit; it rings well, is extremely hard, and resists both the chisel and the penknife. Its texture is one that is agreeable to the eye, and which takes mortar well, and is therefore well suited to architectural purposes."

Pevsner described the church as an anachronism almost beyond belief. There can be little doubt that Sharpe, aged 68, saw this as his last opportunity to vindicate himself