Wallington Green & Holy Trinity Church - Andrew Skelton
Wallington Green
Although there are a few examples of speculative building from the late eighteenth century in Wallington, such as Wright's Row, speculative development on a large scale came only with the opening of Carshalton (now Wallington) Station in 1847, and the Inclosure of lands act (1853). Before then, landowners owned thin strips of land difficult to manage, expensive to maintain, and useless for development; now their lands were rationalised into larger blocks by organised swapping between neighbours. Some owners, such as the Longs of Carshalton, immediately sold their land as suitable for building, but it is interesting that within a decade only small areas had been developed for residential housing. Rosemount (lost) in south Wallington, was developed with houses constructed by builder William Franklin along a single road, while John Crowley developed properties in Belmont and Clifton Roads before the building slump in the late 1850's. The majority of these houses are large square/rectangular blocks with heavy porches, canted bays and classical ornament, of brick, rendered and scored as imitation ashlar.
Wallington Green 1860s
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Locally, the best recorded speculative development is that of the Lord of the Manor, Nathaniel Bridges, who built Holy Trinity church in 1866, and promoted the creation of the parish of Wallington in 1867. Leaving the Manor House and surrounding lands intact, Bridges arranged for the development of the outlying lands of his Wallington estate around the Church. Bridges appointed a surveyor, probably Loftus Brock, and specified that all details were subject in all things to his approval. In February 1869 Brock records that the whole of the land on the estate will be built over under our direction and refers to houses along the Alcester Road constructed by a builder of the speculative class. The rules of construction were quite strict, the buildings were to follow approved plans, to be fronted with good picked stocks or red bricks.
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The Bridges estate housing is of exposed brick, utilising details found in the Parsonage, such as pointed-headed openings, high gables, and diachrome and polychrome brick treatment. One of the earliest and best surviving complexes is Danbury Mews (at Wallington Green), built by Henry Clarke, of Southbridge Road, Croydon; a terrace of fourteen shops and rear stables costing £800 each, and pair of houses or villas at each end of the terrace at £1,000 each, completed in the early 1870's. The rear facade of the stables (visible from Harcourt Road) is excellent brickwork for so insignificant a detail. Closer to the church the large detached houses of the richest occupants, along Manor, Harcourt and Alcester Road have now gone, demolished when their 99-year leases expired in the early 1970s. A few survive in Maldon Road: the best example is Upton Lodge, now Collingwood School, built of red brick with a fretted canted bay parapet; next door is Northcote, of similar style but in yellow brick; while further east are the semi-detached Newton House and Ramner, built by 1880 with canted bays rising through all stories with a pyramidal cap and an ornate pointed door opening, similar to the house opposite. To the north the lesser development of South Beddington - Elgin, Ross, Clarendon and St Michael Roads, and Francis, Charlotte and Hinton Roads, with the Windmill pub and parade of shops along Stafford Road - survive virtually intact. Here and there the diachrome brickwork and high gables are clearly visible.
Other non-Bridges developments include Railway Terrace, Grosvenor Road and the fine mansions and semi-detached houses in Queen's Road; some isolated survivals in Manor Road, Springfield Road and more extensive survivals in Park, Belmont, Clifton and Bridge Roads.
Other non-Bridges developments include Railway Terrace, Grosvenor Road and the fine mansions and semi-detached houses in Queen's Road; some isolated survivals in Manor Road, Springfield Road and more extensive survivals in Park, Belmont, Clifton and Bridge Roads.
Holy Trinity Church and Parsonage
A fundamental element of the Victorian development of Wallington was provided, at his own expense, by the Lord of the Manor, Nathaniel Bridges. Both Bridges and his father John (who died in June 1865) were enthusiastic Anglicans, supporting new local schools and generally looking after Wallington's inhabitants despite being essentially absent. Bridges, having noted the rapid development further south towards Wallington (then Carshalton) station, decided to develop his lands for suburban housing immediately after his father's death, but first provided the embryonic settlement with a new church dedicated to his father's memory. In November 1866 Samuel Simpson, of Tottenham Court Road, was contracted to build a church at a cost of £3,955 to a design by E Habershon, Spalding and E Loftus Brock, to be completed by July 1867, when it was handed over to the ecclesiastical commissioners. Simpson had built the Holborn, Queens, Royal Alfred and Gaiety theatres in London. One of his workmen at Wallington was Duncan Stewart, a Scot of some energy, who stayed in Wallington, became a successful local developer/builder (eg, Queen's Road) and the first Chairman of Wallington Parish Council in 1894, a position of high social standing. Brock, believed to be the main architect, is described as one of the lesser lights of the Gothic Revival by Molesworth Roberts, and contributed to several churches in London and the Home Counties. In the case of Holy Trinity his architectural preference, of the mid-fourteenth century, was based on architectural fragments recovered from the old Wallington chapel demolished in the late eighteenth century.
A fundamental element of the Victorian development of Wallington was provided, at his own expense, by the Lord of the Manor, Nathaniel Bridges. Both Bridges and his father John (who died in June 1865) were enthusiastic Anglicans, supporting new local schools and generally looking after Wallington's inhabitants despite being essentially absent. Bridges, having noted the rapid development further south towards Wallington (then Carshalton) station, decided to develop his lands for suburban housing immediately after his father's death, but first provided the embryonic settlement with a new church dedicated to his father's memory. In November 1866 Samuel Simpson, of Tottenham Court Road, was contracted to build a church at a cost of £3,955 to a design by E Habershon, Spalding and E Loftus Brock, to be completed by July 1867, when it was handed over to the ecclesiastical commissioners. Simpson had built the Holborn, Queens, Royal Alfred and Gaiety theatres in London. One of his workmen at Wallington was Duncan Stewart, a Scot of some energy, who stayed in Wallington, became a successful local developer/builder (eg, Queen's Road) and the first Chairman of Wallington Parish Council in 1894, a position of high social standing. Brock, believed to be the main architect, is described as one of the lesser lights of the Gothic Revival by Molesworth Roberts, and contributed to several churches in London and the Home Counties. In the case of Holy Trinity his architectural preference, of the mid-fourteenth century, was based on architectural fragments recovered from the old Wallington chapel demolished in the late eighteenth century.
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The church appears conventional in plan from the south-west where the composition is proportionally massed, comprising a west tower and spire, narrow aisle and woodwork south porch leading into the western aisle bay. The materials used are roughly knapped flint, possibly locally quarried, with Bath stone dressings. Photographs show a diaper pattern formed from contrasting colour roof tiles, now virtually gone along the south side but surviving, almost intact, along the north side. This device was used by Brock at St Stephens, Hammerwood, Sussex in 1879-80, a church of comparable size and design. Internally, the church has narrow aisles, and a wide nave and apsidal chancel within, creating a large central space emphasised by the roof structure. The arcades are double chamfered, supported on drum-piers and stylised foliage capitals. The chancel arch also rises from moulded capitals, short wall-shafts and moulded corbels set in the chancel wall. The moulded tower-arch has no capitals.
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Holy Trinity Church, Wallington
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A variety of 2-, 3- and 4-light windows, of flowing tracery of varying designs, are found around the aisle and chancel walls; most have glass (partly by Mr A.O. Hemmings) dedicated to past inhabitants of Wallington (eg, the Faringtons and Tyrwitts of Northwood Lodge, Manor Road - south aisle) with two Great War memorials each side of the east window, itself dedicated to the Rev. John Williams, local historian and first Vicar here (1867-79). Other memorials include former Vicars, churchwardens and local inhabitants. The wood fittings - communion rails, choir and clergy stalls and pulpit - were designed by Gerald Cogswell and carved by E Marus, date from the mid-1920s. The font and brass lectern were added at about the same time.
A notable feature of the church is the arch-braced construction of the roof (ie, no tie-beams). The archbraces, alternatively cusped or plain, support a collar and moulded crown-post with crown-post bracing to the main rafters. The structure is supported on wall-posts rising from plain cushion corbels. The woodwork is decorated with trefoils and open-work spandrels in the cusps; the crown-post continues downwards as an ornamental pendant. The roof structure in the apse, with painted patera on the converging rafters, is especially pretty. The aisle roofs have open-work cross-braces.
The Parsonage, costing £1,650, was ordered from Simpson in July 1867 to designs by the same architects, and was handed over in December 1870. It has big, steep gables with decorative brickwork lozenge designs in knapped flint walls; the windows have two- and four-centred arched heads, and the porch is a smaller gabled projection of wood. These and other details are characteristics found on other houses on the Bridges estate development, built from 1867 to 1881.
Although much damaged, the church and parsonage are set in a landscaped setting, with yew trees spaced close together in an arc respecting the south-east curve of the church apse, inside a partially demolished curving boulder wall. I am fairly certain the trees are original plantings (the whole of the south frontage of the church is shown planted with trees in a photograph of 1903) and must be a fundamental part of the layout around the church in the late 1860's.
A notable feature of the church is the arch-braced construction of the roof (ie, no tie-beams). The archbraces, alternatively cusped or plain, support a collar and moulded crown-post with crown-post bracing to the main rafters. The structure is supported on wall-posts rising from plain cushion corbels. The woodwork is decorated with trefoils and open-work spandrels in the cusps; the crown-post continues downwards as an ornamental pendant. The roof structure in the apse, with painted patera on the converging rafters, is especially pretty. The aisle roofs have open-work cross-braces.
The Parsonage, costing £1,650, was ordered from Simpson in July 1867 to designs by the same architects, and was handed over in December 1870. It has big, steep gables with decorative brickwork lozenge designs in knapped flint walls; the windows have two- and four-centred arched heads, and the porch is a smaller gabled projection of wood. These and other details are characteristics found on other houses on the Bridges estate development, built from 1867 to 1881.
Although much damaged, the church and parsonage are set in a landscaped setting, with yew trees spaced close together in an arc respecting the south-east curve of the church apse, inside a partially demolished curving boulder wall. I am fairly certain the trees are original plantings (the whole of the south frontage of the church is shown planted with trees in a photograph of 1903) and must be a fundamental part of the layout around the church in the late 1860's.
Images and text Copyright © Andrew Skelton
We are grateful to Andrew for his consent to us reproducing his words and images.
We are grateful to Andrew for his consent to us reproducing his words and images.
