Sacred Heart

Introduction

The church was established as a mission from St Mary Magdalen, Upper North Street, Brighton in 1876.

History

The church was built in two phases; the east parts are of 1880-1. The original site was between Third and Fourth Avenues but was changed to Norton Road in 1880 in an agreement with the West Brighton Estate Company. Funds were available under the will of Fr George Alfred Oldham (d.1875) who had built St Mary Magdalen (1861-4) and the adjoining school. The westward completion was in 1887 when the benefactor was Mr C W Dawes, a former Anglican clergyman.

Dawes spent £5,000 which included furnishings and an organ by Bevington. The North aisle and chapel were rebuilt and widened in 1914-15.

The church celebrated its 125th anniversary on 7 June 2013 with a special Mass. The church is of rock-faced limestone with slate roofs and details mainly of c.1300.

Architecture and furnishings

The vault paintings on canvas are by N. Westlake and depict the Coronation of the Virgin, archangels, John the Baptist and St Stephen. The window over the south-west doorway is Westlake's last work. The reredos runs the full length of the apse with carvings of the Agony in the Garden and the Crucifixion. The south chapel has an altar with carvings of scenes from the life of St Joseph.

The pulpit is florid with mosaic foliage panels and carvings of St Peter and St Paul at the angles. The alabaster font bears symbols of the Evangelists alternating with traceried panels. The chancel has a three-sided apse with tall two-light windows, each under its own gable, and low, gabled buttresses below window level. The Lady Chapel has a 5-light Perpendicular window.

The roof ridge is continuous over nave and chancel, with a clerestory. The west window is in a spherical triangle and contains elaborate tracery of quatrefoils and mouchettes. The chancel is vaulted with tall wall-shafts. The nave has five wide bays, a narrow bay, and beyond this a canted gallery with open balustrade placed under a tall arch.

The nave has clustered piers with eight shafts and octagonal bases and capitals, arches with hollow chamfers and hood-moulds, and in the valleys of the arches angels playing various musical instruments. The clerestory has two single lights per bay and stone wall shafts between each window. The nave has a keeled roof. The church's choir loft is reached by a circular stone staircase.

Parish life

The parish runs a Justice and Peace Group. The parish has a Meditation Group and a Rosary Group that meet weekly.

The parish participates in the Brighton & Hove Churches Night Shelter Project, a joint venture between the churches of Brighton and Hove that began in 2011. The parish has a team of Special Ministers who visit the sick and housebound with Communion regularly.

The parish holds an annual Anointing of the Sick Mass. The parish takes part in the joint Deanery Confirmation programme, with weekly sessions in a Deanery location.

The parish has over 150 volunteers who help in worship, maintaining buildings, hospitality, care for the sick, social outreach, prayer groups and formation groups. The SVP Society, an international Christian voluntary organisation, meets fortnightly at the Parish Room.