St Saviour's Church

“A large church in the perpendicular style”. So wrote the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner in the 1966 Warwickshire edition of his guide to the buildings of England.

St Saviour’s has always loomed large on the horizon of my life, ever since I spied it as a child from the top deck of the bus into the city centre looking East towards St Andrews. The imposing medieval cast of the tower and its prominent position on a steep incline still serves as a visual marker.

Until the recent Heritage Open Day I’d never entered the building. Courtesy of the genial warden Mr Phipps I was able to take these photographs and discover more about this richly decorated place of worship.

Constructed from 1848-1850 through an endowment from Charles Adderley, the first Baron Norton, with R.C. Hussey as architect, St Saviour’s has had only 15 vicars in its lifetime, survived war-time bomb damage, and continues to offer regular services in an Anglo-Catholic style.

The interior of the church is lofty, spacious, with rich symbolism at every turn. 

The altar is backlit through a vivid stained-glass window which clarifies the church’s Anglican inflection.

The Lady Chapel is particularly notable for an example of the art of Lawrence Lee (1909-2011) widely known for his nave windows in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral

Nearby is the Chapel of the Transfiguration, dating from 1907:

To the left of the altar is the St Francis Chapel:

which like the St Vincent chapel at the rear of the church hosts smaller prayer and worship gatherings.

The most exciting, if treacherous, part of the visit was a journey to the top of the tower. What felt like nearly a hundred steps spiralling a steep incline took me past medieval-looking battlements cut into the tower:

Ever-dustier, slightly fragile stonework led me to the church bell, apparently still in working order:

I lacked both the courage and the footwear to attempt to get on the rooftop, another time I hope.

St Saviour’s is normally only open on days of worship, the main service being on Sundays at eleven. There is also a service at 7 p.m. every Wednesday evening.

Though denominationally Anglican, St Saviour’s looks and feels more Catholic than many modern Catholic churches.

The Walsingham influence is strong, providing the source for the font’s Holy Water and the destination of an annual congregation trip to the shrine.

Though some of the interior plasterwork needs renovation and the graveyard is severely overgrown, the dignity and intimate grandeur of this striking nineteenth century presence in the heart of Saltley remains intact - something signalled poignantly by the fragments left in one of the windows after an air raid in 1941, another connection with Coventry: