Waterloo church
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"Waterloo church" is one of the names applied to over 600 English churches constructed during the early to mid 19th century using funds from the Church Building Act 1818. Other names include "Commissioners' Churches" and "Million Act Churches", reflecting the role of a government-appointed commission appointed to administer the expenditure of £1 million – allegedly granted as a token of the nation's thanks for victory at the Battle of Waterloo which ended the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.
An alternative view of this investment was that it was designed to curb the spread of non-conformist religious denominations then associated with radical political views. With populations in industrial areas growing rapidly, politicians believed that the Church of England offered a way to stem the tide of dissent.
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[edit] The Church Building Act 1818
The Act arose following a meeting in the Freemasons' Hall, London on 6 February 1818, chaired by Charles Manners-Sutton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at which the Duke of Northumberland proposed the formation of a Church Building Society (CBS). The Society lobbied parliament to provide funding for a church building programme, and parliament subsequently passed the Church Building Act, voting £1,000,000 to the cause (the Act subsequently became popularly known as the "Million Act"), to be administered by appointed Commissioners.
In addition to this original sum of money, the programme received a further £500,000 in 1824 (after Austria repaid a £2,000,000 war loan). The Church Building Commissioners were also able to raise money by soliciting voluntary donations, through interest payments and by reclaiming duties paid on materials used in constructing the churches.
The men serving on the commission administering the funds became known as "Church Commissioners" (more correctly, they were "Parliamentary Commissioners"), but should not be confused with the modern Church Commissioners – the former were disbanded when the money ran out.
[edit] The Waterloo church programme
The Commission assisted the construction of more than 600 churches across the United Kingdom. Architects were required to keep costs to a minimum, so many of the so-called Waterloo churches were built of brick, with stone dressing only for window and door surrounds. They were to be built "with a view to accommodating the greatest number of persons at the smallest expense within the compass of an ordinary voice, one half of the number to be free seats for the poor".
Waterloo churches include:
- St John the Evangelist, Waterloo, south London (1824), architect: Francis Bedford
- St Matthew's, Brixton, south London, architect: James Porden
- St Mark's, Kennington, south London
- St Luke's, Norwood, south London
- St Anne's Wandsworth, south-west London
- St James, Bermondsey, south-east London
- St Mark's, Shelton, Staffordshire
- St James the Less, Longton, Staffordshire
- St Paul's, Longport, Staffordshire
- St John the Divine, Chatham, Kent (1819-1821), architect: Robert Smirke
- St Paul's, Macclesfield, Cheshire (1843-1844)
- St Peter's, Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester (1821-1824), architect: Francis Goodwin
- St Leonard's, Church Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton (1825-1826), architect: Goodwin
- St Mary's, Oxford Street, Bilston, architect: Goodwin
- Church of St George, Castlefield, Manchester (1826-1828), architect: Goodwin
- All Saints, Camden Town, Camden Town (1822-1824) known first as St Stephen's
- St George's, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1821-1824), architect: Francis Goodwin[1]
- St John's, Bewdley Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire (1843), architect: G. Alexander[2]
[edit] Sources
- M. Port – Six Hundred New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856 (Revised edition) Spire Books, 2006 ISBN 1904965083
