A History of St Mark’s, New Milverton, Royal Leamington Spa since 1879


Introduction


Welcome to this page whether you are a researcher of George Gilbert Scott, junior, a Leamingtonian, a member of the congregation of St Mark’s, all three or none of these.


The church of St Mark’s as a building has some national architectural importance, being one of only three churches designed by George Gilbert Scott, junior. The other two were seriously damaged in the war and subsequently demolished.


The history of St Mark’s, however, is one of people as well as buildings and I have found it fascinating to discover how much we know about some of the characters from our past. A one page, 2 side, potted history and guide to St Mark’s is available at the back of church. This is a fuller version. Most of it is taken from an account of ‘St Mark’s Church, New Milverton, and Its Parish’ by Lyndon F. Cave in Random Papers published by the Leamington Society in 1985, but other material is from other papers in the possession of St Mark’s, and with additional help given by Lyndon Cave to whom I am most grateful.


George Gilbert Scott Junior 1839-1897
(with thanks to Lyndon Cave, M.Phil, Dipl.Arch.(Liverpool), F.S.A. for much information)


George Gilbert Scott junior was the son of the famous architect George Gilbert Scott, who designed the Albert Memorial (1862-3), St Pancras Station (1865) and many many other buildings. George, junior, was also the father of Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Liverpool Cathedral and designer of the red telephone kiosk.


During his life George designed a few country houses and college buildings in Cambridge, the Catholic Cathedral of East Anglia in Norwich …and St Mark’s, in Leamington Spa.


Gavin Stamp, of the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, has a particular research interest in George Gilbert Scott junior. In the Autumn of 2001 his book ‘An Architect of Promise: George Gilbert Scott Junior and the Late Gothic Revival’ will be published by Shaun Tyas publishing.


Sidney Tyrrell


(last updated 20 October 2001)


For more details of our history between 1879 and 1990, click here.


For our history since 1990, click here.


There is also a useful history of the civil parish of Milverton here.