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496121 HOLBEACH MAIN STREET Holbeach St Mark's Church of St Mark Grade II Church, 1868-9, by Ewan Christian in an Early English style. MATERIALS: Red brick with stone bands and a slate roof. PLAN: Nave and apsidial chancel in one, with S porch and N chapel. EXTERIOR: A large roof is swept down over the nave and curved apse, with a gabled bellcote at the W end. There are lancet windows with red brick voussoirs round the apse and the S and N sides. The W side has two tall lancet windows with billet moulding above, an offset buttress and a dog-tooth eaves course. The S porch has a pointed arch with billet moulding and small lancet windows on the sides. The door to the church has decorative wrought iron strap hinges. The N chapel has a modern extension which is not of special interest. INTERIOR: The interior walls are of exposed red brick with stone dressings. The apse roof is ribbed and rendered. The five lancet windows in the apse have deep reveals and stained glass by O'Connor & Taylor of London, depicting Christ and the four evangelists. The chancel rail has floriated wrought iron supports, and there are floral encaustic tiles in the rise of the chancel step. The original Gothic choir stalls and lectern survive in the chancel, and there is a double arch leading to the north chapel which also houses the organ. The nave has a large scissor-truss roof and a complete set of functional Gothic benches on platforms. At the W end there is a carved round stone font with floral encaustic tiles in the base. The two stained glass windows in the W end depict St Mary and The Reaper. HISTORY: The parish of Holbeach Marsh was created to serve the farmers residing in the marshlands outside Holbeach. It was carved out of the north part of the old parish of Holbeach All Saints. As the size of the new parish was 9,240 acres, it was decided in May 1867 to build two churches: St Mark's to the west, and a smaller chapel of ease, St Matthew's, three miles to the east. Both churches would be served by one clergyman and given an annual endowment by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The foundation stone of St Mark's Church was laid on 19 July 1868, and the church was consecrated on 6 January 1869 by the Bishop of Lincoln. The total cost of building and furnishing the church was £1,333. The half-acre site was given by the Crown, together with one acre for the vicarage. The architect was Ewan Christian and the builder was Charles Bennett of Lynn. The clay for the bricks came from one fo the Duke of Somerset's farms in the parish. Ewan Christian (1814-1895) was a prolific architect with 2,040 works to his name including 90 new churches and many church restorations. He was architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 until his death. A devout evangelical churchman, he favoured auditory rather than highly ritualistic designs. His most important secular commission was the National Portrait Gallery in London (1890-95, Grade I). He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1884-6. His contemporaries considered him 'a safe man', 'in no sense a heaven-born genius, or even possessed of brilliant parts, but a man of inflexible honesty, great industry and great business capabilities'. SOURCES: Log Book of the Parish of Holbeach St Mark and St Matthew, otherwise Holbeach Marsh (MS in parish ownership). Nikolaus Pevsner and John Harris, Buildings of England. Lincolnshire, 2nd edn revised by Nikolas Antram (Yale, 2002), 387. Martin Cherry, 'Christian, Ewan (1814-1895)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004). RIBA, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (Continuum, 2001), Vol. 1, 372-3. A. Gotch (ed.), The Growth and Work of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1834-1934 (RIBA, 1934). REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: St Mark's Church is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Built in 1868-9 to the designs of Ewan Christian, it is a subtle example of his prolific work as architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1851-95 * The exterior of the church, with its careful detailing and restrained polychromy, blends in harmoniously with the rural surroundings * The interior retains a complete decorative scheme with stained glass, font, benches, tiles and altar rail * It has historic interest associated with the development of the marshlands in the mid C19 and the need to provide nearer worship space for the rising number of marshland farmers

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