Chale Church
It was founded by Hugh Gendon in Chale in 1114. However, the present church dates from the 14th century. It has 6 bells in its tower. One might have been made about 1360. It has Christian images on some of the stained glass windows, mostly by Charles Eamer Kempe.
The churchyard contains Commonwealth war graves of a Royal Navy sailor of World War I and a Home Guardsman of World War II. Rumour has it that there was a tunnel leading from the church to the beach for smugglers to hide their merchandise, perfect foil. The doorway is still there today, only its filled in.
The first organ in the church was installed around 1890, but was sold in 1900 to St. Peter's Church, Shorwell.
The church then acquired a two manual organ dating from 1899 by Bryceson. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
The Parish Church of Chale, Isle of Wight, was dedicated to St. Andrew on 1st December 1114 and so in 2014 celebrated the 900 years a Christian church has stood on this site close to Chale Bay Farm.
Originally it was a Catholic church but on the Reformation it became part of the Church of England. It started probably as just a small single roomed structure, but over the centuries it has been enlarged to the building we see today. In the 15th century the tower was added, and in Victorian times it went through major alterations and extensions.
The Church has six stained glass windows by the famous Charles E. Kempe, five given in memory of James Arnold Hearn of New York, USA, as was the Clock, two bells, the organ, and land around the external churchyard.
The pulpit has a carving of the Last Supper by Millicent Johnson, daughter of Sir Henry Allen Johnson, Bart, who lived nearby and who was buried by the front porch in1860.
Other memorials include those to members of the Worsley family. Many victims of shipwrecks in Chale Bay are buried near the north churchyard wall, including the famous Clarendon, wrecked in 1836.
The Churchyard surrounds the Church and includes the Chale Parish War Memorial, and the graves of people of various denominations who lived in Chale.
Richard Suter (1797–1883).
Richard Suter was born in Greenwich, Kent on 30th March 1798, to William Suter and his wife Sarah Knights. On 7th January 1825 he married Anne Ruth Burn.
English architect. As Surveyor to The Fishmongers' Company he designed the severe Presbyterian churches for Ballykelly (1825–7) and Banagher (1825) on the Company's Estate in County Londonderry, drawings of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1827. He was also responsible for the Model Farm (1823–4), the Lancasterian Schools (1828–30), the Company Agent's House (1830–2—now a hotel, much altered), a range of houses on the south side of the main road (1823–4), the lodge in the Presbyterian churchyard (1828), and the Dispensary (1829), all at Ballykelly, and all Classical. As Surveyor to Trinity House Corporation, he designed houses that were erected by Thomas Cubitt in 1821–3 on a site adjoining Trinity House. For The Fishmongers' Company he designed St Peter's Almshouses, Wandsworth, London (1849–51), and The Old School-House, Gresham's School, Holt, Norfolk(1859), in an Elizabethan style.
On the 1841 Census Richard, an architect and lawyer, can be found living in London with his wife Ann (listed as Ruth) and their two children, Richard George and Andrew Burn. Living with them is Edward D Suter. 1851 finds the family living in Tottenham Court in London, by this time Andrew had left the home, but I am unable to trace him on the 1851 Census. In 1860 Andrew marries Amelia Damaris Harrison. Both Richard George and Andrew were to become ordained ministers, with Andrew later becoming a Bishop and emigrating to New Zealand. Sadly in 1854 Anne Ruth was to pass away. In 1861, widowed Richard, Justice of the Peace for Maidenhead, is living at Castle Hill, Maidenhead, Berkshire. In 1862 he married Elizabeth Anne Pocock. In 1871 and 1881 Richard and Elizabeth are still living in Castle Hill. Richard was to pass away on 1st March1883.
Richard Suter & Annesley Voysey, architects, had their office at number 35 Fenchurch Street, but they did not have it all to themselves as they shared the premises with W.C. Franks, a tea broker, who will get a separate post some other time. The earliest mention I found of Richard Suter in Fenchurch Street is in 1832 when he is listed at that address in a list of contributing members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. It says that he had been a member since 1829, but that does not mean he was already at 35 Fenchurch Street in that year.(1) In fact, that seems unlikely as the Sun Fire Office records give Messrs. Short and Co., merchants, as paying the insurance premium on the premises in May 1830. The Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 give the year 1827, but I do not know on what evidence. When Suter and Voysey became partners is also uncertain, but they had known each other since at least 1825 as Suter is named as one of the executors of Voysey’s will which was dated 22 July, 1825. The address given for Suter in the will is Suffolk Street, Southwark. Voysey then lives at Conway Street, Fitzroy Square.