The Building
By Robert Dukes

Although there is a lot of information available about the men who actually built the church - their names, what they did and where they had worked before, no one knows who the architect was although there have been a number of guesses.

Excellence and good manners in design were widely distributed in the Eighteenth Century, even at local and amateur level, but the very high standard of the interior suggests a major figure.

The church has many similarities to those designed by James Gibbs. The interior, for example, is startingly like the St Martins in the Fields. Further, the Holy Ghost plaque in the ceiling is a close copy of that in St Peter's, Vere Street, London, which church Gibbs had designed for the Earl of Oxford and had finished shortly before St Thomas's was begun, so much so, indeed, that it makes one wonder whether the moulds were reused.

Can we say that it was designed by James Gibbs? It might be, but, with no documentary proof, we can only say for certain that it is in his style.

Market Street is really too narrow to permit the visitor seeing the church as a whole, but it can be fairly well observed from the doorway of the old Vicarage from whence the rhythm of the design and the harmony of stone and brick can be appreciated.

The building, of course, has been altered but it is easy to distinguish between the older and the newer work. Externally, this comprises the apse and the porches of 1890 (architects: Cotton and Bidlake) and the variety of 1912. The West window also seems to date from the 1890s. The clock was given in 1878.

At the East End, note should be taken of the blocked entrances. These were cut in 1836 and closed again in 1890. The original entrances, now the inner doors of the porches, were at the West End.

Internally, the church consists of a nave of four bays with Tuscan columns on high pedestals surmounted by a compartmented barrel vault, an apsidal ended chancel and a Western baptistery under the tower. The columns are of wood and are traditionally believed to have been turned from trees growing on the site.

As in all classical compositions, it is best appreciated if seen from one viewpoint - in this case, from under the tower.

Like the exterior, the interior has been altered over the years. The galleries and the pews date from 1836, the pews replacing taller box pews - they came nearly to the tops of the pedestals - parts of which were re-used. Their height, incidentally, not only gave an opportunity for the congregation to slumber unobserved through the long sermons but for boys to carve their initials. There are Eighteenth Century examples on the Westernmost pedestal on the right.

Gas Lighting was installed at the same time. The brass chandelier, which hung from a hook in the base of the acanthus leaf boss in the centre of the ceiling was then sold for £12.

The Lady Chapel altar piece was erected in 1963 the architect being J Homery Folkes and the joiner Robert Pancheri. On the other side of the church, the pulpit was begun in 1913, when the base was made by Messrs Simeon Bateman, and finished in 1978, the top being made by Messrs R Bridgeman.

The visitor is now at the green marble parclose screen, erected in 1912 when the marble floor was laid in the chancel. Above is the Holy Ghost plaque, the finest detail of the church. This has been attributed to Bagutti.

Notice the fine choir stalls, part of the 1890 alterations, and the screen on the North side. This was designed by Bidlake and given by Robert Bloomhall in 1890 in memory of his wife. It is a very fine essay in the Early Renaissance style. It was erected to divide the organ console from the chancel, a purpose it no longer serves.

The organ is an outstanding one. It was made by George Pike England, one of the most celebrated makers of the late 18th Century, and installed in the West Gallery in 1809 to replace the barrel organ formerly used to accompany the hymns. During the 1890 alterations, it was brought up to date and was moved into its present position, the West Gallery being taken down, a new West window cut and the 1836 glass from the East window moved to the other end of the church to fill it. In the new apse, three windows, depicting the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Ascension were placed. They are dated 1891 and are the gift of Charles Collis.

The mosaic reredos was given in memory of Mary Ann Fiddian in 1916.