More information : St Barnabas, a daughter church of St Nicholas, Kenilworth (Grade I Listed Building NHLE number 1300415, NRHE number 333946, NMR number SP27 SE33), had its origins in a large congregation which worshipped in an upstairs room used as a Mission Hall in nearby Park Road. By the 1880s, suburban development in the town had swelled the numbers of worshippers to 150 to 200, and it was resolved by the vicar, Revd. Alfred Binnie, that a new church was needed, which would allow for larger numbers, and be more easily accessible than the upper floor in the Park Road building. The site was rented in 1884, and purchased by the parish in 1905. The iron church was erected by 1886, and it was used as a temperance centre and meeting room until it was licenced for use as a Mission Church in 1905. It was extended by the addition of the sanctuary before it began in use as a church; later the three dormer windows and the bellcote were removed. Internal alterations have taken place throughout the 20th century, together with the modification of the entrance lobby and the removal of the brick chimney and in 1992, the iron roof was covered in uPVC tiles.
The building is a late-19th century iron church, also known as a 'tin tabernacle', constructed from corrugated iron cladding on a timber frame. The building is rectangular on plan, orientated roughly NW-SE with an entrance porch at the west end. The basement level at the west end and the truncated chimney breast which rises from it are in red brick. The external walls are clad in metal, and the roof covered in uPVC tiles. The windows are lancets with hood moulds. Internally, the single room is open to the roof, which is formed from simple A-frame trusses, with high collars and no tie beams. The sanctuary is divided from the nave by a pointed arch, which has later-20th century painted decoration.
The Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings (March 2010), state that for buildings dating from before 1700, all those that contain a significant proportion of their original fabric are listed; from 1700 to 1840, most buildings are listed; and after 1840, progressively greater selection is necessary due to the large numbers of buildings erected and their increasing standardisation. The English Heritage Selection Guide for Places of Worship (April 2011) gives further guidance. In the period circa 1840-1880, many new churches, initially established as missions in temporary prefabricated corrugated iron (invented 1828) chapels to standard catalogue designs (usually Gothic Revival), were erected throughout the country. Sometimes these were re-used as church halls on completion of the new church, and sometimes funding never materialised and worship continued in these so-called ‘tin tabernacles’ or ‘iron churches’. A particularly early example, of 1858 survives on Shrubland Road, Hackney, London (listed Grade II), whilst the Bailbrook Mission Church, Bath, was the most expensive and ecclesiologically correct design from the catalogue of William Cooper of Old Kent Road in London when erected in 1892. It is listed Grade II.
The Church of St Barnabas in Kenilworth is not recommended for listing, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest: it lacks the elaborate bellcotes, bargeboards, lobbies and window detailing of the best examples of the type.
Relative date: the building dates from the mid-1880s, and is thus late in the history of the building type.
Alteration: the building has undergone significant later alteration, including the addition of the sanctuary, the removal of the three dormer windows from the roof, the removal of the chimney and bellcote, the modification of the porch and the cladding of the roof in plastic tiles.
Interior: the interior decoration is very plain, and those elements which are in place date largely from the later 20th century, such as the 1950s panelling to the sanctuary and the 1970s painted decoration on the chancel arch.
Overall, though clearly cherished by its congregation and the local community, the Church of St Barnabas is not of sufficient interest to merit designation in the national context. It is, though, of some local interest for its history as a place of worship in this area of Kenilworth, and for its place in the late-19th century development of the town. (1) |