Restoration & Furnishing in the 19th Century
The nineteenth century saw the birth of the Catholic revival in the Church of England, as well as a renewal of interest in Gothic Architecture. The Cambridge Camden Society, active from 1839, proved influential, believing that the promotion of ‘Catholic architecture’ might shape a more ‘Catholic ethics’. Churches throughout England were refashioned, and St Bene’t’s was no exception. Much of what you see in the church today is Victorian.
In the 1840s, Raphael Brandon published a series of important books on medieval architecture. The parish invited him in 1850 to design the replacement of the north aisle, an expansion of what had become a cramped building. Brandon planned a new aisle running the full length of the church in the fashionable Gothic style. In the end, what was built was shorter and broader. You are standing in it now. If you look up you will see the unusual design of the wooden roof, with figures holding scrolls or shields. Are they angels, are they kings, are they male or female? Brandon’s designs here are unique, though clearly influenced by the examples he had studied.
In 1865 a musician’s gallery and organ were removed to reveal once again the superb Anglo-Saxon arch in our tower. The west door was also replaced with a window in Perpendicular Gothic Style. It was filled in 1867 with stained glass depicting the birth of Jesus, his baptism, and his ascension. The window was erected in memory of John Swan, a churchwarden. Older glass, perhaps from the Middle Ages, fills the highest space.
The last stage was the rebuilding of the south aisle and chancel from 1872, as designed by Arthur Blomfield, with new clerestory windows and roof, new pews and a Norman-style font for the tower. The windows in the rebuilt south aisle and chancel were filled in with stained glass over successive years and in memory of beloved parishioners. The chancel received a new altar and other decorations. In February 2020, we rediscovered a lost piece of Blomfield’s work in the chancel: the mosaic currently visible on the East Wall.
The Norman-style font remained in the tower until 1956 when it was given to All Saints Cathedral in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The 18th-century font had been given to the mission chapel of St James-the-Less. After that mission was closed, the font was retrieved from a builder’s yard and restored to its present place in the North Aisle.
