THE
P RTAL
April 2019
Page 11
A history of St Agatha’s
Church, Portsmouth
A review of the book by Fr J.D. Maunder by Fr Simon Ellis
P ope Benedict
XVI may have been surprised that so few buildings were brought into the
Ordinariate. Furthermore, the Church of England, being burdened with far too many buildings, one
might have thought the shedding of 30 or so churches would have been, as they say today, “win-win”. But
Pope Benedict probably hadn’t reckoned with Patronage. We could have predicted (and I think a Church of
England Bishop promised!) that Pope Benedict wouldn’t be given a brick.
This may be surprising when you consider that
Bishops like Richard Chartres were always keen to
display their ecumenical credentials, whether that
involved saying mass at St Mary’s, Bourne Street on
the one hand or cosying up to the Orthodox on the
other. If the history of the Ordinariate ever comes to
be written, the clear failure of the Church of England
Bishops to act with charity will surely be more than
a footnote: their very ‘un-English’ tribalism was in
marked contrast to their high calling.
this tough parish, characterised by pubs, brothels and
insanitary houses. Within months of his arrival some
400 children attended Sunday school and 500 people
joined in the Good Friday Devotion. This detail, and
so much more, is revealed in a new book, “A history
of St Agatha’s Church, Portsmouth”, celebrating the
fine history of the building and its people, not least
the very saintly Anglo-Irish Christian Socialist Fr
Robert Radclyffe Dolling, who was responsible for
the construction of the new church….oh and a gym,
meeting room, a boy’s school, 12 almshouses, the
parsonage and the girls’ school! As the book reminds
us, Anglo-Catholics (in the late 19 th century) had
emerged from the shadows, filed with confidence
and vigour. Believing that reunion with Rome
was no longer a dream but an imminent reality,
Anglo-Catholic priests [like Fr Dolling] set about
transforming their churches…”to resemble France or
Belgium….[asserting] their allegiance towards Rome
and all things Catholic”.
There is a bizarre exception which proves the brick
rule. There is a brick…in fact almost a whole church
which the Church of England indirectly gifted to the
Catholic Church. An Italianate Romanesque Church,
St Agatha’s in Portsmouth – the St Mark’s Venice of
Portsmouth - built in the Landport slums in 1882, and
beginning her life as a Mission Church of Winchester
College. – this set of bricks is now home to the Catholic
Church. I say indirectly gifted because the Church of
England closed St Agatha’s in 1954 and the Church
How ironic that out of all the ritualist Anglo-Catholic
remained unused until 1994 when the Traditional
Anglican Communion - and the St Agatha’s Trust – shrines, St Alban’s Holborn, St Peter’s Plymouth,
St Alban’s Holborn, St Peter’s London Docks - to
restored the Church and reopened it for worship.
name a few - it is the embattled St Agatha’s which
It had been a naval store for 40 years! Then, in 2012, has ‘delivered’. I say embattled, as St Agatha’s had
this building and the people joined the Ordinariate to endure so many battles, not least enemy action on
of Our Lady of Walsingham (Portsmouth and IOW 23 December, 1940 and Portsmouth City Council’s
Group); so a one-time Anglo-Catholic shrine, is now vandalism in the post-war period of demolition and
open for mass during the week and on Sundays at 11am road building which included plans for demolition.
and is staffed by Fr John Maunder and Bishop Robert Now it has been rescued after a 30-year campaign and
Mercer CR, retired Bishop of Matebeleland. I should is now “what its founding fathers always wanted it to
qualify that this set of bricks included the magnificent be - a Catholic Church in full Communion with the
sgraffito plaster mural c 1901, the work of Heywood Holy See. Thanks be to God”.
Sumner (a friend and disciple of William Morris) and
Father “Bob” Dolling will surely be rejoicing on
described by Pevsner in 1964 as “Portsmouth’s only
another shore…..
major work of art”.
Dr Linklater – the first priest of St Agatha’s – had
arrived in the parish in 1882 with a few books and box
of Keating’s Insect Powder. Perhaps appropriate for
Copies may be obtained - £4 or £6 inc P&P
from John Maunder,
St Agatha’s Church, Market Way,
Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 4AD