St Matthias

St Matthias was built as a Chapel of Ease of St Mark, Torwood.

The foundation stone of the church, then St Matthias Chapel, was laid on Easter Monday, 13th April 1857. It was designed in the decorated style, by Anthony Salvin, a leading exponent of the Gothic Revival. It was built by local builders, John Tapley Harvey and William Harvey.

The present church is considerably larger than the buildings of 1858. The south aisle was added in 1865 and the chancel enlarged in 1885. The main change in the considerable enlargement of the church in width, height and length, the formation of the west end and the addition of the north porch were undertaken in 1894 by the notable architect, John Loughborough Pearson, who was also the architect of Truro Cathedral.

Let us walk round the church, noting some of the interesting features.

Just inside the north door is the font, given by the family and friends of Revd Thomas Nash Hicks, the first Vicar of St Matthias. The font cover is made of British oak which has been seasoned for some 70 years. The engraving was supervised and partly executed by an elderly lady of 82 years.

Ahead and to the right is the beautiful central west window above a fine oak carved screen. It represents the first part of the Te Deum, the song of praise.

As we walk up the left hand, north aisle we notice the memorial tablets and windows. A marble tablet recalls a sad series of events for Henry Dundee Hooper; the death of his wife, second daughter and son, all within 18 months. He bequeathed a proportion of his estate to the church.

The second window on this side has at the top the coat of arms of Queen Victoria. Beneath are the figures of St Ethelbert who became King of Kent about 560, and his wife St Bertha who was a Christian. King Ethelbert was himself baptised by St Augustine in 597. This window was put up to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.

On the east wall of the North transept there is a window in memory of Briscoe Hooper, father of Henry Dundee Hooper, 'for 38 years legal adviser to the town'. The window depicts Moses with the Ten Commandments and John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, who suffered martyrdom at the stake in 1555.

The Chancel was built in scale with the original chapel and as the church grew the chancel became too small. John Snelgrove, whose name recurs frequently in this period of history, suffered the loss of his son, James, at the age of 17 and the chancel was enlarged in 1885 at Mr Snelgrove's expense and dedicated to his son's memory.

The dwarf walls at the entrance to the chancel are of alabaster capped with red Ogwell marble. The chancel gates of wrought iron are in the Art Nouveau style of the turn of the century. The letters IHC and XPC are based on the Greek word for Jesus Christ.

The reredos, the screen behind the altar, a memorial to John Spencer Meade who died in 1884, is of pure alabaster. Notice the beautiful mosaics of angels and cherubs on the walls, and the fine floor tiles. Above is the east window, with the oldest glass in the church.

Over the Chancel arch, there is a great wooden screen carved from oak trees grown in the neighbourhood of Exeter. The lectern is in the form of a brass eagle on a pillar. The pulpit is made of alabaster with marble plinth and shafts.

The original organ was built in 1885 by Hill & Son (builders of the Westminster Abbey organ) at a cost of £1100.