An interesting design by W. C. Mangan, working with his elder brother James Henry. As with his earlier church at Romsey, St Patrick’s shows Mangan’s early Arts and Crafts tendencies, albeit with a pronounced neo-Romanesque character. The tower is a particularly pleasing element of the composition. As at St Colman’s Portsmouth and his New Milton church, Mangan uses chequerboard patterns, reflecting local vernacular building traditions. His interest in patterned and polychromatic brickwork, which were to find even more elaborate expression in his slightly later churches at Reading and Newbury, is here evident. The 1960s transept extensions contain some interesting stained glass but architecturally do not add to the interest of the building. 

The diocesan trustees bought a piece of land from William Windebank in Manor Road in 1914. A temporary church or hall may have been built on the land, as construction of the present church did not start until 1924. The architects were J.H. and W.C. Mangan of Preston, instructed by Bishop Cotter of Portsmouth, the builder James Cockerell of Southsea. Decorative plasterwork, scagliola, mosaic, terrazzo and the altar were the work of Marchetti Ltd, of Portsmouth. The building, which was handed over to Canon Bailey of Havant in March 1925, was designed to seat 130 people and cost £12,000. The first parish priest was appointed in May 1927. He stayed at a convent on the sea front, and subsequently moved to a house in St Leonard’s Avenue, Hayling Island.

The church was extended at a cost of £26,000 between 1964 and 1966, to designs by T. K. Makins. The newly-enlarged church, which now sat 350, was opened on 17 March 1966 and consecrated on 28 September 1984. In 1973 a presbytery was built on land to the northeast of the church. The church hall was constructed in 1979 by a firm called Reema of North Baddesley, near Southampton.

Description

The original church consisted of an unaisled nave, with an asymmetrically-placed tower over the entrance at the west end. Shallow transepts projected from the east end of the nave. The 1960s extension makes the church T-shaped, with large transepts projecting either side of the sanctuary.

The exterior of the original church is red brick, with a darker red brick plinth. The roof covering is Westmorland slate, laid in diminishing courses. The original church has arched window and door surrounds made from lengths of stone set on their ends. The sills are the same darker red brick as the plinth; below each sill is a panel of chevron-patterned bricks. The original windows have metal frames and small squares of leaded glass. The tower is also red brick, with a pyramidal slate roof interrupted on each side by a steep gable hood to a louvred belfry opening. The tower walls feature blind inset panels from first floor level on the west and south faces, above which is a wide chequerboard panel of grey and yellow stone (or similar material). Above this are narrow dormer windows with stepped brick surrounds. The round-arched main entrance to the church in the bottom of the tower has brick arches beneath the stone head.

The 1960s extension, at right angles and seemingly embedded into the east end of the Mangan church, is clad in the same colour red brick. It has a flat roof, with steel-framed, round-headed lancet windows which are grouped together and set in concrete surrounds. Below the roof is a concrete cornice with wide-set dentil decoration.

The interior is fairly plain, with a central gallery in the west end supported by squat columns. Below the gallery is a narrow vestibule. The ceiling is a pointed barrel-vault, with a carved plaster cornice and curving ribs. The extension is supported by plain painted columns. The windows of the original church are small-paned Flemish glass. The windows in the east walls of the transepts are stained glass, predominantly red-coloured in the north transept and predominantly blue-coloured in the south transept. The sanctuary is lit by high windows within the barrel vaulting; its furnishings are modern. The Stations of the Cross came from the local convent, closed in the 1960s, and were installed in St Patrick’s in 1991. Bishop Cotter’s arms are set in mosaic below a tripartite window in the west wall.

There are several single-storey extensions, to the east end and north side of the church. These house the WC, boiler and sacristy. The red brick presbytery dates from 1973 and the church hall, in matching red brick, from 1979.

Heritage Details