OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: November 15, 2017
Webpage updated: November 15, 2019

To go to the Home Page          To go to the A-Z Contents Page

-

ANGLICAN CHURCH OF SAINT BONIFACE, BISHOP AND MARTYR

The Anglican Church of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr, was located in Victoria Road, Saint Budeaux.  It was the sixth place of worship planned by the Three Towns Church Extension Society.  The site was given by the joint landowners, the Reverend Doctor Trelawny Ross, the vicar of Paignton; Miss Collins, of Ham House; and Miss Hare.

It has now been demolished and replaced by a modern and smaller building in Percy Street.

The Church of St Boniface at St Budeaux

The Church of Saint Boniface at Saint Budeaux, Plymouth.

Originally services were held for the small congregation in a room on the first floor of a building at the rear of Yeomman's terrace, over the stables and bakehouse belonging to a baker by the name of Henwood.  Then on the afternoon of Monday December 17th 1900 Lady Jackson, wife of Sir John Jackson, the contractor for the North Yard Extension of the Royal Dockyard, laid the foundation stone of the Saint Boniface Mission Hall.  Designed by Mr E Sedding, the contract for the building was let to Messrs Allan and Tozer at an estimated cost of £703.  The building had local limestone walls, some two feet in thickness, broken by brick bands, and a roof of Cornish slate.  The main room was 74 feet by 33 feet, with a chancel of 10 feet.  Underneath were the vestry and a large recreation room measuring 32 feet by 17 feet.  Seating was provided for 400 people.

The Mission Hall was dedicated by the Bishop of Exeter on Saint Boniface's Day, June 5th 1901.  An organ, donated by Miss Lampen, was dedicated on the evening of Wednesday September 18th 1907.

In time it was decided that a proper church was required and Mr W D Caröe was asked to design a building capable of taking 630 worshippers.

On another site given by the Reverend Doctor Trelawny Ross, the Bishop of Exeter laid a foundation stone on the evening of Wednesday October 4th 1911.  The curate-in-charge was the Reverend H H Ensor.  During his address, the Bishop remarked that although the district was well served by both railway and tramcar, 'the flow of population ... had not been quite as rapid as was contemplated when the church and hall were planned'.

A few years later the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter, the Right Reverend Archibald Robertson, on May 14th 1913 as a chapel of ease to Saint Budeaux Church.   The Church was in the Perpendicular style and consisted of a chancel, lady chapel, three bays of a nave, and a vestry.

The ecclesiastical parish of Saint Boniface was formed in 1916 from Saint Budeaux.

A new Church has been erected recently in Percy Street.  At its entrance is a large cross made of ships timber that had been presented to the original Church by the Royal navy in 1965.  A large stained glass window made by Father Norris, of Buckfast Abbey, in the 1960s, was salvaged from the old building and now adorns the interior of the new one.