St Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin Explained

50.6325°N -1.1783°W

St. Paul's Church, Gatten, Shanklin is a parish church in the Church of England located in Shanklin, Isle of Wight.

History

It is an ecclesiastical parish taken out of Sandown in 1876. (fn. 17) The church was built 1880–90, and has an apsidal chancel, a nave with aisles of five bays and a stone tower at the north angle.^[1]

The church was designed by the architect C. L. Luck.^[2]

St. Paul's Church has the bell from HMS Eurydice (1843), which sank off Dunnose Point and is the subject of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

During a WW2 enemy air-raid on the town on 17 February 1943, a bomb passed horizontally through the church exploding in the vicarage killing Rev. R B Irons^[3] and all the other occupants. The church was re-opened in February 1947. ^[4]

Organ

The pipe organ dates from 1882 by the builder Forster and Andrews. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Notes and References

1. 'Parishes: Shanklin', A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (1912), pp. 195-197. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42072 Date accessed: 14 December 2008.
2. The Buildings of England, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Nikolaus Pevsner
3. Web site: CIVILIAM ROBERT BEATTIE IRONS . 20 November 2024 . Commonwealth War Grave Commission.
4. Web site: St Paul Church, Gatten . 20 November 2024 . Historic England.