More information : Whittington Barracks were built as part of a far reaching national modernisation programme carried out by the Secretary of State for War, Edward Cardwell during the 1870's. Work on the barracks started around 1877, was carried out by Harry Lovatt & Son of Wolverhampton and was completed by 1881 when they were occupied by the 1st and 2nd South Staffordshire Regiments and the 1st and 2nd North Staffordshire Regiments. Edward Cardwell, appointed to the War Office in 1868, addressed a chronic recruitment issue through a process of reform set out in the Localisation Act of 1872. He set up a network of local depots each centred on an area with a population large enough to sustain it, rather than based on operational needs. It was the first national barrack building initiative in England during peacetime. Across Britain 29 new depots, including Whittington, were built from scratch, while about 40 existing barracks were adapted. The building programme was under the supervision of Major HC Seddon, Royal Engineers, Director of the Design Branch. The new barracks conformed to a standard model with local variations, and incorporated many of the improvements for which the Army Sanitation Commission and its predecessors had called.
Whittington Barracks has remained fully operational since 1881 and in this time has expanded, contracted and been altered to meet developing operational needs. Apart from the Staffordshire Regiments, others also made use of the facilities from time to time and by 1902 enough accommodation had been added for the barracks to become a two battalion station.
The building now known as the Garrison Church of St George was the first building at the barracks to be completed, but was originally built as a chapel-school building. During the weekdays the building was used for education and on Sundays as a place of worship. The Whittington Chapel School was designed for 521 worshippers and 175 school children. The school at various times accommodated 383 soldiers, 50 officers and ladies, 66 women and children. The vestry doubled as a place of worship for other religions. It was not until 24th June 1924 that the building was consecrated as a place of worship. The church houses a wide variety regimental and ecclesiastical memorials, including details of those who died in the various conflicts.
EXTERIOR: The Garrison Church of St George stands north east of the parade ground within Whittington Barracks. The building is predominantly red brick in English bond in simple Early English Style with some stonework and a slate roof. The gables have low coping and many carry small stone wheel crosses. Another wheel-cross stands on the top of the sanctus bellcote. Each elevation has at least one large circular window with cinquefoil tracery and the whole building is carried on a battered plinth. The remaining windows are mainly of lancet type with or without hood moulds, although there are some with plain horizontal lintels. At the western end of the nave are north- and south-facing doors with narrow porches. The nave walls have three stepped buttresses separating individual windows with moulded sill courses. Protruding from each side of the nave is a transept with a large circular window and gable without a cross. Attached to the eastern side of the southern transept is the chaplain's office with horizontal lintels over the south door and windows. A chimney stack leads up from the boiler room beneath the chaplain's office, reached by a flight of stairs situated to the east. The single storey vestry and verger's office attached to the northern transept were added between 1902 and 1923 and have a pair of chimneys together with small and large lancet windows with wooden frames. Attached to the north facing external door leading into the vestry is a protruding timber surround.
INTERIOR: The chancel has a blue panelled vaulted roof with gold coloured framing, an ornate altar screen with regimental crests, altar rail, finely decorated tiles around the alter, panelling bearing memorial inscriptions, pews with decorated ends including regimental and other insignia and a low rood screen. The brick chancel arch with mouldings and blunt pointed arch rests on a pair of ornate painted pilasters. The ornate wooden pulpit stands below the northern side of the chancel arch, whilst the decorative alcove containing the Book of Remembrance is inserted into the wall near the southern side of the arch. The very wide single span barrel vaulted nave is lit by four lancet windows in each of the long walls and three circular windows with cinquefoil tracery and four blunt pointed arch windows below. Regimental colours hang from the walls which also carry a large number of memorials. Occupying much of the nave are simple wooden pews and at the west end stands an octagonal Portland stone font with four pilasters and decorated panels on the basin. Two doors originally led into the western end of the nave from the north and south. The northern one is blocked with a commemorative wooden panel, but the southern one sits within a pointed arched frame within a cambered opening highlighted by a pair of narrow moulded brick courses. Leading from the eastern end of the nave are a pair of transepts. Both are separated from the nave by a pair of blunt pointed arches supported by a single ornate Early English Style Portland stone column. Access to the church is mainly through the southern transept and the northern transept provides access down a short flight of steps to the vestry and verger's office.
The Garrison Church of St George was the first building to be completed at the barracks and has played an important and focal role in the life of the Staffordshire regiments. The church contains large numbers of memorials and the Book of Remembrance. There are constant reminders of the part played by the regiments on the world stage and the building therefore represents the most significant physical and visual manifestation of the two regiment's history. In common with the Grade II listed church at Shoebury Garrison, the Garrison Church of St George was originally built as a chapel-school. The former built a few years earlier in 1866, is described as "one of the most architecturally developed of barrack churches at this time". It is of a very similar style and scale to the Whittington example, although built with different materials. Apart from the addition of the vestry and verger's office sometime between 1902 and 1923 the building is essentially in its original form. The choice of a simple Early English style was probably motivated by the need to keep costs as low as possible, but despite this the resulting building is very appropriately muscular and martial, rather severe and no-nonsense. In particular, the very wide single nave span is dramatic and the lack of side aisles emphasises the sheer size of the space. The dual occupancy of the building is reflected in the two separate doorways leading into the nave, and although one of these is now blocked the original intent is still clearly discernable. The quality of the interior detailing and workmanship is high throughout and the crisp and well executed capitals and arches in the crossing arcades are noteworthy.
Very few of the Cardwell Barracks were provided with a church. Most of the barracks were built within or on the edge of urban areas and existing churches were used instead. At the Church of St Martin and St Wilfred, Lewes Road, Brighton [482030] some fittings and memorials within the church indicate that it was used as the garrison church for the nearby Preston Barracks. The choice of a previously unoccupied patch of moorland some considerable distance from any settlement for the Staffordshire Regiments meant that the barracks needed its own church. A church is also known to have existed at the Worcester barracks, but it has subsequently been demolished. At the cavalry barracks at Hounslow [439112] a chapel does survive, but this is rather earlier and architecturally much simpler. Extensive research suggests that the garrison church at Whittington is the only surviving example from the Cardwell period. This rarity certainly enhances its significance and as a reminder of both the very significant Cardwell reforms and the importance of religion and tradition in the lives of those serving at the barracks, this church represents a building of national significance and fully meets the standard for listing at Grade II. (1)
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